"I had a special reason for keeping the ring,"
"Will you tell it me?"
"You are quick at forming conclusions, Miss de Courcy. Can't you guess?——"
"To remind you never to help strange young women on mountains?"
"No—not for that."
"I am not to ask the reason?"
"On that day you asked what you chose. All the more should you do so now, since there is nothing I could refuse you."
"Not the half of your kingdom—like the Royal men in fairy stories?"
The light words struck a chord they had not aimed to touch. They went 125 echoing on and on, till they reached that inner part of himself which the Emperor knew least—his heart. Half his kingdom? Yes, he would give it to her, if he could. Heavens! what such a partnership would be!
"Ask anything you will," he said, as a man speaks in a dream.