"It was all Adelaide," she murmured presently. "She brought me your book, and afterwards we talked. She was alone with my grandfather—and then he sent for me. I was afraid, for this was in his last days. Shall I tell you what he said, Arnold?"
"Yes," I answered, tightening my grasp upon her. "Go on talking!" For I was fighting still for belief.
"He took my hand quite calmly, and I knew at once that I had nothing to fear. 'Isobel,' he said, 'they tell me that you have your mother's blood in your veins, that freedom means more to you than ambition, that you are a woman first and a Waldenburg afterwards. Is this true?' Then I told him everything, and he kissed me. 'Go your own way, Isobel,' he said, 'but stay with me while I live. Adelaide has shown me many things which I did not understand. Poor child!' He sent for his lawyers, Arnold, and he made me a poor woman. I am much too poor to be a princess any longer—unless I may be yours."
Then I believed—this, the strangest of all things that may happen to a man. My garden of fancies, which Feurgéres had shown me so well how to cultivate, passed away into the mists. Before the moon rose, Paradise was there.
THE END
THE NOVELS OF E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
A Prince of Sinners
Anna the Adventuress
The Master Mummer
A Maker of History
Mysterious Mr. Sabin
The Yellow Crayon
The Betrayal
The Traitors
Enoch Strone
A Sleeping Memory
The Malefactor
A Daughter of the Marionis
The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown
A Lost Leader
The Great Secret
The Avenger
As a Man Lives
The Missioner
The Governors
The Man and His Kingdom
A Millionaire of Yesterday
The Long Arm of Mannister
Jeanne of the Marshes
The Illustrious Prince
The Lost Ambassador
Berenice
The Moving Finger