The Marshal smiled grimly.

I had stolen some glances at his face, but he was too impassive to show me whether his sympathies were with me or not.
"The red rose for the Elphbergs, Marshal," said I gaily, and he nodded.
I have written "gaily," and a strange word it must seem.

But the truth is, that I was drunk with excitement.

At that moment I believed--I almost believed--that I was in very truth the King; and, with a look of laughing triumph, I raised my eyes to the beauty-laden balconies again.

.