He grimaced his appreciation. "Then they will begin to pity the husband, chérie."
She held up her lips to his, childishly, lovingly. "I will be good," she said. "I will be good. I will never say such things again."
He kissed the trembling lips again, lightly, caressingly. "Oh, don't be too good!" he said. "I couldn't live up to it. You shall say what you like—do what you like. And—you shall be my queen!"
She caught back another sob. Her clinging arms tightened. "And you will be—what you have always been," she said—"my king—my king—my king!"
In the silence that followed the passionate words, Charles Rex very gently loosened the clinging arms, and set her free.
PART IV
CHAPTER I
THE WINNING POST
"I never thought it would be like this," said Toby.
She spoke aloud, though she was alone. She stood at an immense window on the first floor of a busy Paris hotel and stared down into the teeming courtyard below. Her fair face wore a whimsical expression that was half of amusement and half of discontent. She looked absurdly young, almost childish; but her blue eyes were unmistakably wistful.