And we should have been married the day after to-morrow! God of heaven, have mercy!" Her grief took hold of her again, like a material power, shaking her from head to foot, and bowing her down upon herself and wringing her hands together, so that Inez, calmer than she, touched her gently and tried to comfort her without any words, for there were none to say, since nothing mattered now, and life was over at its very beginning.
Little by little the sharp agony subsided to dull pain once more, and Dolores sat upright.

But Inez was thinking still, and even in her sorrow and fright she was gathering all her innocent ingenuity to her aid.
"Is there no way ?" she asked, speaking more to herself than to her sister.

"Could we not say that we were there, that it was not our father but some one else?
Perhaps some one would believe us.

If we told the judges that we were quite, quite sure that he did not do it, do you not think--but then," she checked herself--"then it could only have been the King." "Only the King himself," echoed Dolores, half unconsciously, and in a dreamy tone.
"That would be terrible," said Inez.

"But we could say that the King was not there, you know--that it was some one else, some one we did not know--" Dolores rose abruptly from the seat and laid her hand upon the parapet steadily, as if an unnatural strength had suddenly grown up in her.