The Lighted Match

She had slipped away for a moment of respite from the fatiguing

requirements of the ball-room. She had come here because she had felt

sure that here she could be alone. She had come, driven by the prompting

of her heart, to look out to the Mediterranean and wonder where, between

its gates at Gibraltar and Suez, Benton might at that moment be. And

from the balcony she had seen him in the garden and had heard a part of

this talk before the spell of her astounded muteness broke into

exclamation.

"You heard what we were saying." Karyl spoke gently, deferentially. "And

it seemed to you incredible that we should be confidential on such a

subject. It would be so, except that we are both seeking the same

end--your service--" he paused, then added miserably--"and your

happiness."

She listened in wonderment as she held out her hand to Benton and

watched trance-like his lowered head as he bent his lips to her fingers.

"Cara!" Karyl had stepped back and was leaning over, his elbows resting

on the stone back of one of the low benches. His fingers tightly grasped

the carved ornaments at its top. His words were carefully chosen and

measuredly spoken. He knew that if he permitted one expression to escape

him unguardedly, with it would slip away the command by which he was

curbing mutinous emotions.

"Cara, I happened to be born a Prince, who should one day develop into a

King. It chanced that Nature had a sense of humor--so Nature paid me a

droll compliment. She gave me a futile ambition to be a man--me, whom

she had decided was to be only a King!"

The group stood silent and attentive in a strained tableau, except for

Von Ritz, who paced back and forth just beyond the fountain, as though

respectfully repudiating the whole unseemly episode.

"Then I fell in love with you," went on the King of Galavia. "You

married me--because State reasons demanded it. I could not win your

love--he did!" He turned toward Benton, and his voice, though it held

its slow control, was bitter.

"Benton, do you fancy this puny game amuses me? Do I not know that you

could buy a principality like this for a souvenir of Europe if it

happened to please you? The one time I have been allowed to feel a man

was in your country, where we met as equal rivals.... No, not equal even

then, because you were the winner, I the loser."

"Karyl," the Queen spoke in a low voice, "I can give you loyalty,

admiration, respect and my life to use as you see fit to use it. I give

as freely as I can. My love I do not refuse--it is just ... just that it

is not mine to give." She spoke with unutterable weariness. "I seem to

bring only sorrow to those who love me."