“Now let us talk, Chlodwig,” she said; “now let us make plans for the future!” And she snuggled up close to his shoulder. “Now all doubts are solved: now the world belongs to us—this beautiful, splendid world!...”

He grew dizzy. “Franka, how am I to understand this?”

“How?” She laid her hand in his—“That I am thine forever.”

“Franka—is it possible? The Unattainable, the Unapproachable will be my own, my wife?”

“Aye, that she will.”

“And the prince?”

“I had not accepted his hand. I shall write him a line to-day:—‘My heart is not free’!”

“Because it belongs to me?”

“Yes, to you, Chlodwig!”

“I cannot realize the joy of it!”