"The Fatal Skull!" Idris could not but think it a curious coincidence that Lorelie's drama should bear such a title, when he himself at this time was much interested in a skull, to wit, that of Orm the Viking.
"Why so weird a title, mademoiselle?"
"Because it is appropriate to the leading incident in the piece: for the play turns on the famous historic banquet at which the Lombard Queen Rosamond was forced by her husband to drink from her father's skull. So now you understand, Mr. Breakspear," she went on, "that wherever the words 'Fatal Skull,' or the initials 'F. S.,' occur in the margin of my book, they mean that there is something in the passage thus marked capable of being worked into my drama."
"And when do you intend to publish it?"
"Not yet: perhaps never. I write, not for fame, but for my own pleasure."
"Do not say that, mademoiselle. If one has noble thoughts the world will be the better for hearing them. I hope, therefore, to see the day when your work will be published: nay, more, I hope to see it acted."
"It is kind of you to say so," she murmured. The light of pleasure in her eyes, and the colour mantling her cheek, so enhanced her beauty that it was with difficulty the impulsive Idris could repress the temptation of telling her of his love. But, even as he watched, the look of pleasure faded from her face, and there succeeded the melancholy air that he had previously noticed, an air that said almost as plainly as words, "I am forgetting myself: it is not for me to be glad."
Yet the smile returned to her lip when Idris ventured upon a suggestion.
"I see neither boat nor vessel within hail," he remarked, glancing over the sea. "We have several hours yet before us. Now in the Christmas tales, you know, when the stage-coach passengers are snowed up at the country-inn, or the sea-voyagers wrecked on the lonely isle, they always beguile the time by story-telling. It's the orthodox thing to do. Suppose we imitate them."
"A good idea! and," added Lorelie archly, "it becomes the mover of the proposition to take the initiative."