her mind to her aid and with but a slight effort sat upright professor von came towards her with an exclamation of but she him back with a very decided gesture please do not trouble she said � i am quite able to move � to stand � see and she rose to her feet trembling a little and herself by resting one hand on the edge of the sofa i do not know who you are but i am sure you have been most kind to me and if you would do me a still greater kindness you will let me go away from here at once impossible madame declared the professor firmly � his majesty the king what of his majesty the king demanded with sudden � am i not mistress of my own actions the professor made an elaborate bow most unquestionably you are madame he replied � but you are also for the moment a guest in the king s palace and having saved his life you will surely not withhold from him the courteous acceptance of his hospitality a woman s reason the king s palace she echoed and a little smile crossed her lips � i � � in the king s palace she moved a few steps and drew herself proudly erect you sir are a servant of the king s i am his majesty s resident physician at your service i he said with another bow � i have had the honour of attending to th wound you so received in his defence � and though it is not a dangerous wound it is an exceedingly unpleasant one i assure you � and will give you a good deal of pain and trouble let me advise you very earnestly to stay where you are and rest � do not think of leaving the palace to night she sighed i must not think of staying in it she replied but i do not wish to seem � or ungrateful for your care and kindness � will you tell the king � here she broke off abruptly and fixed her eyes on his face strange she murmured � i seem to have seen you before � or very like you the professor was troubled with a sudden fit of which made him very red in the face and obliged him to turn away for a moment in order to recover himself still struggling with that obstinate catch in his throat he said you were saying madame that you wished me to tell the king something yes said eagerly � if you will be so good tell him that i thank him for his courtesy � but that i must go away from this palace � that i cannot � may not � stop in it an hour longer he does not know who it is that saved his life � if he did he would not wish me to remain a moment under his roof i he would be as anxious and willing for me to leave as i am to go will you tell him this madame i will tell him replied the professor yet with a slight smile � but � if it will satisfy your scruples or ease your mind at all � i may as well inform you that his majesty does know who you are the itself declared your name to him with shouts of she flushed a vivid red then grew very pale power if that be so then he must also be aware that i am his sworn enemy i she said � and that in accordance with the principles i hold i cannot possibly remain under his roof therefore i trust sir you will have the kindness to provide me with a way of quick exit before my presence here becomes too publicly reported the professor was slightly he considered for a moment then rapidly made up his mind madame i will do so he said � that is if you will permit me first of all to announce your intention of leaving the palace to the king pardon me for suggesting that his majesty can hardly regard as an enemy a lady who has saved his life at the risk of her own i did not save it because he is the king she said and you are at liberty to tell him so please make haste to inform him at once of my desire to leave the palace � and say also that if he considers he owes me any gratitude he will show it by not me the professor bowed and retired left alone sat down for a moment in one of the chairs and pressed her left hand hard over her eyes to try and still their throbbing ache her right arm was bound up and useless � and the pain from the wound in her shoulder caused her acute agony � but she had a will of iron and she had trained her mental forces to control if not entirely to master her physical weaknesses she thought not of her own suffering but of the exciting incident in which mere impulse had led her to take so marked a share it was by pure accident that she had joined the crowd assembled to see the king lay the foundation stone of the proposed new theatre she had been as it were entangled in the press of the people and had got pushed towards the centre of the scene almost against her own and while she had stood � a passive and unwilling spectator of the � her attention had been singularly attracted towards the uneasy and restless movements of the youth who had afterwards attempted the of the monarch she had watched him narrowly though she could not have explained why she did so even to herself he was a complete stranger to her and yet with her quick a woman 