"
He replied slowly;
"Of the women who have loved me none gave this reason, though
they gave many."
She laid her cheek on his hand.
"That is the true reason."
But he drew it away and was vaguely troubled, for her words, he
knew not why, reminded him of the Far Away Princess and of things
he had long forgotten, and he said; "What does a slave know of
the hearts of Kings?" And that night he slept or waked alone.
Winter was at hand with its blue and cloudless days, and she was
commanded to meet the King where the lake lay still and shining
like an ecstasy of bliss, and she waited with her chin dropped
into the cup of her hands, looking over the water with eyes that
did not see, for her whole soul said; "How long 0 my Sovereign
Lord, how long before you know the truth and we enter together
into our Kingdom?"
As she sat she heard the King's step, and the colour stole up
into her face in a flush like the earliest sunrise. "He is
coming," she said; and again; "He loves me."
So he came beside the water, walking slowly. But the King was not
alone. His arm embraced the latest-come beauty from Samarkhand,
and, with his head bent, he whispered in her willing ear.
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