"Shall I pin my bouquet upon Monsieur's back? I believe it is usual to pin it upon the lapel of the coat."
Then I turned quickly, and for all the answer I made I dropped on one knee and held toward her the lapel of my coat, and as she stooped to pin it on I looked straight into her eyes. And what my eyes said to hers I know not, but quickly the white lids drooped over hers and shut me out from heaven, while the long black lashes lay upon her cheek, and the rich blood swept in a slow flood from the snowy throat to the dark waves of hair that crowned her white brow.
And now her fingers trembled so in pinning on the flowers that she was long in the doing of it (though I could have wished it much longer); and when she had finished I seized the hand that trembled, and for the first time I had ever dared I pressed my lips upon it. I saw another wave of color sweep her face, and then she bade me rise, and as I stood beside her a burst of acclaims came from every lip, "Vive le roi! Vive le roi!" and from one, "Vive le roi et la reine!" and I could not have been prouder had I been king indeed, and she my royal consort beside me!
CHAPTER XII
A MIDNIGHT FRAY
"Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety."
Josef Papin was the first to bow the knee to me in mock homage, and as his laughing eyes met mine he said, in a tone not so low but that mademoiselle might have heard if she had listened:
"I owe you a grudge, sire. You have stolen the honors I so dearly coveted."