That moment Driscoll turned the corner of the hedge, and was before them. He fell back, and reddened as though himself caught in wrongdoing. It was strange how he noted, at such a time, that she was clothed in light blue, in the very dress he had given her. But no, he perceived at once that it was of some delicate silk from Japan. Yet the pattern was so nearly the same. She must have selected it--she had selected it!--with him in mind. And now, against a girl's love so quaintly, shyly revealed, to behold this contrast, her hands there, wantonly surrendered! Instantly she tore herself free and confronted him. "Oh, why, _why_," she cried fiercely, "did you not let them kill you?" Suddenly her hands flew up to her hot face. "Then," she moaned, "then you would not have lived to see!" The Emperor stepped between them. Tall, severe, he was cold in anger. "It's the intrusion of a rowdy, mademoiselle." To Driscoll he said, "Now, go!" Utterly confused, the trooper turned to obey. But at the first step he swung round, looking as he had never looked in the bloodiest of cavalry charges. "I am here for your answer, sir," he said. "Answer? What answer, fellow?" Driscoll breathed once, he breathed twice, and yet again. It may be he counted them. Then he spoke. "You understand, of course, that I might call you a puppy? Or break you over my knee? But I've got something harder on hand. It's to make you honor your promise. I've ridden forty miles for what you were to give me six hours ago at Chapultepec. Now then, shall I bring the men to save your empire? Think well. You need not take the question from me. Take it from them, from an army of fifty thousand men. Now, answer! And remember, you can save your empire." "Save my empire?" Maximilian repeated the words. There was a reluctant note in the query. Jacqueline heard. And the bravest act of her life was when she raised her head and faced her shame, with _him_ to see. She must begin her fight all over again. "Yes, your play empire, sire," she said, wielding two weapons, the mockery in her voice, the seduction of her eyes. Driscoll saw his cause forlorn against eyes like those. "It's unfair!" he protested involuntarily. She turned on him in defiance. "It is _not_ unfair! And you, monsieur, of all men, know that it is not. You, and you alone, know what I, what I would give--what I tried to give--that I might win in this!" He could not help a thrill of admiration. She was battling against all men and women to change the destinies of two continents. "W'y, I take it back then," he said.