"Will you love me?" was his question, not, "Though you love, yet dare you own your love?" He seemed to shut the whole world from her, leaving nothing but her and him; and in a world that held none but her and him, she could love, unblamed, untroubled, and with no trembling. "You forget who I am," she faltered once. "You are the beauty of the world," he answered smiling, and he kissed her hand--a matter about which she could make no great ado, for it was not the first time that he had kissed it. [Illustration: "'YOU ARE THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD,' HE ANSWERED SMILING."--_Page 263._] But the embassy from the Grand Duke was to come in a week and to be received with great pomp. The ambassador was already on the way, carrying proposals and gifts. Therefore Osra went pale and sad down to the river bank that day, having declared again to the King that she would live and die unmarried. But the King had laughed cruelly. Surely she needed kindness and consolation that sad day; yet Fate had kept for her a crowning sorrow; for she found him also almost sad; at least she could not tell whether he was sad or not. For he smiled and yet seemed ill at ease, like a man who ventures a fall with fortune, hoping and fearing. And he said to her: "Madame, in a week I return to my own country." She looked at him in silence with lips just parted. For her life she could not speak; but the sun grew dark and the river changed its merry tune to mournful dirges. "So the dream ends," said he. "So comes the awakening. But if life were all a dream?" His eyes sought hers. "Yes," she whispered, "if life were all a dream, sir?" "Then I should dream of two dreamers whose dream was one, and in that dream I should see them ride together at break of day from Strelsau." "Whither?" she murmured. "To Paradise," said he. "But the dream ends. If it did not end----" He paused. "If it did not end?" a breathless longing whisper echoed. "If it did not end now, it should not end even with death," said he. "You see them in your dream? You see them riding?" "Aye, swiftly, side by side, they two alone, through the morning. None is near; none knows." He seemed to be searching her face for something that yet he scarcely hoped to find. "Their dream," said he, "brings them at last to a small cottage; it is where they live." "They live?" "And work," he added. "For she keeps his home while he works." "What does she do?" asked Osra, with smiling wondering eyes. "She gets his supper for him when he comes home weary in the evening, and makes a bright fire, and----" "Ah, and she runs to meet him at the door! Oh, farther than the door!" "But she has worked hard and is weary." "No, she is not weary," cried Osra. "It is for him she works!" "The wise say this is silly talk," said he. "The wise are fools then," cried Osra. "So the dream would please you, madame?" he asked.