George on that airy rampart beside the
wall of blossoming vines.
"There is something more," she repeated, "when two love each other
very much I think that they have everything that you have said, and
more."
He looked at her in silence. The stained light from some high window
caught her veil in meshes of rose and violet--fairy colours,
witnessing the elusive, fairy, invincible truth of what she said.
"You mean that you do not love me?" said the prince gently.
"I do not love you, your Highness," said Olivia, "and as for the
wisdom of which you speak, that is worse than useless to you if you
can do as you say with two quite innocent men." She hesitated,
searching his face. "Is there no way," she said, "that I, the
daughter of your king, can save them? I will appeal to the people!"
The prince met her eyes steadily, adoringly.
"It would avail nothing," he said, "they are at one with the law.
Yet there is a way that I can help you. If Mr. St. George returns,
as he must, he and his friends shall be set adrift with due
ceremony--but in an imperial airship, with a man secretly in
control.
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