"But you wanted me to tell you.

Yes--we are nearer now." "Far nearer--and a world more dear," he answered.

"Do you know?
In all these months I have often and often again wondered how we should meet, whether it would be before many people, or only with your sister Inez there--or perhaps alone.

But I did not dare hope for that." "Nor I.I have dreamt of meeting you a hundred times--and more than that! But there was always some one in the way.

I suppose that if we had found each other in the court and had only been able to say a few words, it would have been a long time before we were quite ourselves together--but now, it seems as if we had never been parted at all, does it not ?" "As if we could never be parted again," he answered softly.
For a little while there was silence, and though there was to be a great gathering of the court, that night, all was very still where the lovers sat at the window, for the throne room and the great halls of state were far away on the other side of the palace, and the corridor looked upon a court through which few persons had to pass at night.