Part 27 (1/2)
Here the Queen h she shook away the impression his tone made
”My dear Gresthaven,” she exclaimed, ”love means above all else happiness! One is happy with one person and miserable with another
It's all a lottery and unless our plans reatest happiness in the world But come”--She altered her tone to one of practical coht You have your train schedule of course? The Dover train is due here at 4:50 and it only waits for the taking on of our carriage” As she looked up at him she saw the trouble in his face, and a solicitude for her to which she was unaccustomed
”Mon cher ami,” she said quizzically, ”what, reat, ever led you to accept this erly answered, and was honest in it, ”the hope, the desire that I ainst her heart?” she sly, and so reasonably, he was for an instant all on her side
”I seebut _force majeure_, Gresthaven”
”Yes”he ado out now and see to our manoeuvres here” He was able to open the door which a passing guard had unlocked unobserved
The innocent royalty let hio down the track toward the little squat station, with the guards
Bulstrode, whosewas busy with train schedules, recalled, nevertheless, the Duke's letter, which he still had in his letter case, and he took it from his pocket and re-read it
” We are to have over the week-end a dash of royalty Cardouests had quite escaped Bulstrode's e of the Duke's note ”We are to have a compatriot of your own, a Mrs Jack Falconer”) And royalty being very relative to the unsnobbish American, he had simply transferred the title (with possibly a possessive pronoun before it) to the other lady!
He smiled as he reflected that the Westboro' express was destined to arrive at the Abbey without either the royal guest or Mr James Thatcher Bulstrode Butwas the fact, that within ten minutes the slow train froh Bucks, the little station before which he now stood, and from it, undoubtedly, would descend the real Lord Gresthaven If Jiement in his self-iet the ardor and the deteret how, in youth, he had cordially hated those interfering people who, on horseback and in chaises, tore after flying lovers to waylay the that he was ”the King's friend”
”It's after all so of a distinction,” he mused, entertained by the idea, ”a sort of royal _noblesse oblige_--and since the poor dear herself has sothe precedence, how could I, in the cause of gallantry, have proceeded otherwise! It's this diabolical little brown chrysanthemum,” heunknoho are to wear a red flower in the right lapel of the coat” and he had unintentionally gone over into a romance--and his _triste_ part in it was that of an unsyed parley with the station officials he walked leisurely back to his carriage, his wallet grown very thin indeed and his honest heart suffering ether, he argued: ”She is absurdly young--she will, after a little, go back to her allegiance (he put it so), and I don't take arian band-ent, a plebian creature whose very remoteness from her own life has fascinated her”
Bulstrode, not quite sure just whom he was supposed to be by the train people, found hie which had been turned and manipulated and side-tracked--reswitched and displaced, till even its own locomotive and train of cars would have been at a loss to find it He had the sense of being a traitor, brute, imposter, and Providence all in one--which combination of qualities was sufficient to explain his eth rejoined the Queen
There was a slight transfor had aided, evidently, a brisk toilet Under her chin flowered out a sno of tulle, and she had swathed herself in the thick veil she had hen first boarding the train Indicating her disguise to Bulstrode, she said with her pretty accent: ”I think it well to be thus” And he agreed that it ell
His own agitation as the other train rushed in, slowed and halted, was scarcely less than hers, indeed perhaps greater, for Carda, pale and quiet, her handson of life, until after a series of jerks, jolts and bu train, onceits journey Then Bulstrode, who stood deteriving her no chance to look out had she wished to do so, nor did he think it needful to tell the Queen what he saw: A distinguished-looking h brown clothes, and oh, the curious coincidence: a reddish-brown chrysanthe Reseentleman--short and stout with esticulating wildly together, and as the train pulled away from them, Bulstrode turned about and faced the little Queen
She had again lifted her veil, and he thought her pallor natural; in the e eyes were fastened upon hi confidence that nearly ret the boldest act of his history
”Are you sure,” she asked hiht train?”
The coquetry of her bow of snowy tulle, the debonnaire costuray hat with its feathers, were pathetic to him--her attire contrasted sadly with her pale face She was to him like a wilful child Not more, he decided for the sixth time, than twenty years old She was like a paper queen out of a child's fairy book, all but her anxious face ”She regrets,” he joyfully caught at the thought to ar, she already regrets”
Leaning forward, he suggested kindly:
”Can't your Majesty rest a little?”
As he spoke the hypocrite knew that in less time than it would take to settle her they would buda ret that she was _en route_ for her plebian Gela She leaned over and picked up one of the illustrated papers upon the seat and idly turned over the pages, reverting finally back to the frontispiece where a colored photograph displayed a young wo gentleman with black mustaches and swarthy skin She held it out to Bulstrode and said: