The Queen looked at him,--he met her eyes with an expression that she had never seen on his face before. “Suffer me to have my way!” he said to her in a low tone--“Let your singers finish their programme; afterwards do me the favour to dismiss your women, for I must speak with you alone.” She bent her head in acquiescence; and re-seated herself on her ivory throne. The sign was given for the continuance of the music, and the King, leaning back in his chair, half closed his eyes as he listened dreamily to the harmonious throbbing of harps and violins around him, in the stillness of the languid southern night. His hand almost brushed against his wife’s jewelled robes--the scent of the great lilies on her breast was wafted to him with every breath of air, and he thought--“All this would be Paradise,--with any other woman!” And while he so thought, the clear tenor voice of one of the unseen singers rang out in half gay, half tender tones: If I loved you, and you loved me, How happy this little world would be-- The light of the day, the dancing hours, The skies, the trees, the birds and flowers, Would all be part of our perfect gladness;-- And never a note of pain or sadness Would jar life’s beautiful melody If I loved you, and you loved me! ‘If I loved you!’ Why, I scarcely know How if I did, the time would go!-- I should forget my dreary cares, My sordid toil, my long despairs, I should watch your smile, and kneel at your feet, And live my life in the love of you, Sweet!-- So mad, so glad, so proud I should be, If I loved you, and you loved me! ‘If you loved me!’ Ah, nothing so strange As that could chance in this world of change!-- As well expect a planet to fall, Or a Queen to dwell in a beggar’s hall-- But if you did,--romance and glory Might spring from our lives’ united story, And angels might be less happy than we-- If I loved you and you loved me! ‘If I loved you and you loved me!’ Alas, ‘t is a joy we shall never see! You are too fair--I am too cold;-- We shall drift along till we both grow old, Till we reach the grave, and gasping, die, Looking back on the days that have passed us by, When ‘what might have been,’ can no longer be,-- When I lost you, and you lost me!