One Day

he royal crown so heavily embossed at the top of the paper. What a toy it was, he thought, to

fteenth of the May following your twenty-first birthday, at which time the coronation ceremony takes place that is to place the crown of the kingdom upon the head of the son of our beloved and ever-to-be-regretted Imperatorskoye. The Court and Council ext

we salute thee.

nd protector almost from his birth. The young prince knew that his uncle loved him, knew that the Grand Duke desired nothing on earth so much as the happin

icular charm for me! They might at least have told me something a little more definite about the woman they ha

had come up to town with the Verdaynes, and was apparen

nd had finally managed to secure, behind a hedge of hawthorn where none but lov

ly the written confirmation of the sentence Fate had pronounced upon him, even as it had pronou

rown study, clutching the imperial letter tightly in his young hand, his attent

ess feminine voice-a discourse on fashion, society chit-chat, and hopeless nonentities, inters

ll. The voice, completely unconscious of the aversion it aroused in

lutely have to say. If all American girls are as dreamy as you, I wonder why our Eng

den thrill of delight; for another voice had spoken-a voice of such infinite charm and sweetness and vitality, yet with languorous

at all worth saying. I can't accustom myself to small-talk-I can't even listen to it patiently. I always feel a wild impulse to fly far, far away, where I can close my ears to it all and listen to my own thoughts. I'm sorry if I disappoint you, Alice-I seem to disappoint everybody that I would like to please-but I assure you, laugh at my dre

not dead, surely! Wha

e matched that voice-the opal, that glorious gem in which all the fires of the sun, the iridescent glories of the rainbow, and the col

able, to rise to the heights of love, and knowledge, and power; to sink-if need be-to the deepest depths of despair, but, at all

ftness of a whisper, yet even t

dreamless existence, and never, never wake to realities. Alice, I have sometimes wondered if that was to be my fate, have wondered and wondered until I have cried out in real terror

eld his b

imself could have done? He was bored no longer. He was roused, stirred, awakened-and in

rd. Why didn't she keep still? He didn't want to miss a single note he might have caught of the voice-that other! Why did

felt that way-thank goodness! It's vulgar to feel too deeply, Mamma used to say, and as I have grown older, I can see that she was right. The best

ht Paul, behind the hedge.

lice, you a

rds. "One has to marry, of course. That is what we are created for. But one doesn't make a fuss about it. It's only a custom-a ceremony-and doesn

u don't

that was almost horror in t

half-way good to one. I am sure I think a great deal of Algernon; but I dare say I shou

ve?" The horror in the tone

should! You have lived so much in books that you seem to have a very garbled idea of the world. F

emember, and Americans are afraid of nothing-nothing! Com

now. "Such notions are apt to get girls into trouble, and lead them to some unhappy fate. To

lish matron as she added the last word, and her voice

e, give me the suffering and sorrow, and many tears-and the sin, too, if it must be, for we are all sinners of greater or less degree-but

, Opal, and-we don't say

eaven than you commit when you give yourself to a man whom you do not love better than you could possibly love any other. Oh, it is a sin-it must b

really-but see! isn't that Algernon crossing

obey, I suppose! Lead the way, cousin mine, and I'll

ed the departure of the ladies away fr

quite forgotten the future so carefully arranged for him, and was off in hot pursui

It did not occur to him that he might easily learn from his hostess the identity of her American guest; and even if the thought had presente

nd interest in his every glance and motion. People smiled at the solitary figure, and whispered

did he fin

nd it was with a keen sense of disappointment that he at last entered his carriage for the home of the Verdaynes. He was hearing again

h. He had forgotten its very existence, nor did he once thin

en in love