On her face was no smile
- only at last was revealed the patience she had covered with
laughter so long that even the voice of the King could not now
break it into joy. The hands that had clung, the swift feet that
had run beside his, the tender body, mighty to serve and to love,
lay within touch but farther away than the uttermost star was the
Far Away Princess, known and loved too late.
And he said; "My Princess - 0 my Princess!" and laid his head on
her cold bosom.
"Too late!" a harsh Voice croaked beside him, and it was the
voice of the Jester who mocks at all things. "Too late! 0
madness, to despise the blood royal because it humbled itself to
service and so was doubly royal. The Far Away Princess came laden
with great gifts, and to her the King's gift was the wage of a
slave and a broken heart. Cast your crown and sceptre in the
dust, 0 King - 0 King of Fools."
(The man at the feet of the Dweller in the Heights moved. Some
dim word shaped upon his locked lips. She listened in a divine
calm. It seemed that the very Gods drew nearer. Again the man
essayed speech, the body dead, life only in the words that none
could hear.
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