She looked quickly around the buzzing drawing-room, and leaned cautiously nearer. "You are my sovereign." "I believe that, Eagle. But it does not follow that I shall ever reign." "Are you safe here? Napoleon Bonaparte has spies." "But he has regard also for old aristocrats like the Marquis du Plessy." "Yet remember what he did to the Duke d'Enghien. A Bourbon prince is not allowed in France." "How many people consider me a Bourbon prince? I told you why I am here. Fortune has wonderfully helped me since I came to France. Lazarre, the dauphin from the Indian camps, brazenly asks you to marry him, Eagle!" Her face blanched white, but she laughed. "No De Ferrier ever took a base advantage of royal favor. Don't you think this is a strange conversation in a drawing-room of the Empire? I hated myself for being here--until you came in." "Eagle, have you forgotten our supper on the island?" "Yes, sire." She scarcely breathed the word. "My unanointed title is Lazarre. And I suppose you have forgotten the fog and the mountain, too?" "Yes." "Lazarre!" "Yes, Lazarre." "You love me! You shall love me!" "As a De Ferrier should; no farther!" Her lifted chin expressed a strength I could not combat. The slight, dark-haired girl, younger than myself, mastered and drew me as if my spirit was a stream, and she the ocean into which it must flow. Darkness like that of Ste. Pelagie dropped over the brilliant room. I was nothing after all but a palpitating boy, venturing because he must venture. Light seemed to strike through her blood, however, endowing her with a splendid pallor. "I am going," I determined that moment, "to Mittau." The adorable curve of her eyelids, unlike any other eyelids I ever saw, was lost to me, for her eyes flew wide open. "To ----" She looked around and hesitated to pronounce the name of the Count of Provence. "Yes. I am going to find some one who belongs to me." "You have the marquis for a friend." "And I have also Skenedonk, and our tribe, for my friends. But there is no one who understands that a man must have some love." "Consult Marquis du Plessy about going to Mittau. It may not be wise. And war is threatened on the frontier." "I will consult him, of course. But I am going." "Lazarre, there were ladies on the ship who cursed and swore, and men who were drunk the greater part of the voyage. I was brought up in the old-fashioned way by the Saint-Michels, so I know nothing of present customs. But it seems to me our times are rude and wicked. And you, just awake to the world, have yet the innocence of that little boy who sank into the strange and long stupor. If you changed I think I could not bear it!" "I will not change."