Part 41 (2/2)
”You are the King's true love,” exclaimed the Merry Monarch. ”To my arms, Nell, to my arms; for you first taught me the meaning of true love! Buckingham, you forget your courtesy. Her grace wishes to be escorted to her coach.”
”_Bon voyage_, madame,” said Nell, demurely, as the d.u.c.h.ess took Buckingham's arm and departed.
The King's eyes fell upon the player, Hart, who was still in custody.
”Away with this wretch!” he cried, incensed at his conduct. ”I am not done with him.”
”Forgive him, Sire,” interceded Nell. ”He took his cue from Heaven, and good has come of it.”
”True, Nell,” said the King, mercifully. Then he turned to Hart: ”You are free; but henceforth act the knave only on the stage.” Hart bowed with shame and withdrew.
”Sire, Sire,” exclaimed Strings, forgetting his decorum in his eagerness.
”Well, Strings?” inquired the King, good-humouredly; for there was now no cloud in his sky.
”Let me play the exit for the villains?” he pleaded unctuously. ”The old fiddle is just bursting with tunes.”
”You shall, Strings,” replied his Majesty, ”and on a Cremona. From to-day, you lead the royal orchestra.”
”Odsbud,” cried Strings, gleefully, ”I can offer Jack Hart an engagement.”
”Just retribution, Strings,” laughed Nell, happily. ”Can you do as much for Nell, and forgive her, Sire?”
”It is I who should ask your pardon, Nell,” exclaimed the King, ecstatically, throwing both arms pa.s.sionately about her. ”You are Charles's queen; you should be England's.”
_So the story ends, as all good stories should, in a perfect, unbroken dream of love._
EPILOGUE
Spoken by Miss Crosman for the first time in New York at the Bijou Theatre on the evening of October 9, 1900:
_Good friends, before we end the play, I beg you all a moment stay: I warn my s.e.x, by Nell's affair, Against a rascal called Adair!_
_If lovers' hearts you'd truly scan, Odsfish, perk up, and be a man!_
GROSSET & DUNLAP'S DRAMATIZED NOVELS
Original, sincere and courageous--often amusing--the kind that are making theatrical history.
MADAME X. By Alexandre Bisson and J. W. McConaughy. Ill.u.s.trated with scenes from the play.
A beautiful Parisienne became an outcast because her husband would not forgive an error of her youth. Her love for her son is the great final influence in her career. A tremendous dramatic success.
THE GARDEN OF ALLAH. By Robert Hichens.
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