An Imperial Marriage Part 65

"I scarcely like to---- It's so difficult that---- But I'm afraid you'll have to--to give in. You know how hard I tried to save you from that--well, from von Felsen; but--I don't like putting it on the ground that it would help me; but it would really mean that. Would that marriage----?" I paused as if in great embarra.s.sment.

"Tell me. This is cruel," she said quickly.

"Could you make the sacrifice?"

"You said he had left the country."

"I wasn't speaking of----"

She did not let me finish. She laid her hand on my arm and looked up all smiles and blushes into my eyes. "It would serve him right if I refused, sir. To frighten me like this!"

"Does the condition frighten you then?"

She crept into my arms and laid her head on my shoulder with a little sigh.

There was no need for any other answer; and we were nearly caught in this silent enjoyment of our victory by Chalice, who came rustling in to tell us of hers.

"It's been an absolute triumph," she announced boisterously. "The Kaiser was so delighted with my voice that he sent for me to say that he should pardon the Baron on my account. He is the loveliest man in the world."

And to this hour she believes that it was that and that only which had secured the Imperial clemency.

THE END

Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._

WHEN I WAS CZAR.

The _Daily Chronicle_ says:--"It is something to manage a complicated plot, just as it is something to drive a tandem, or a coach and four.

Mr. Marchmont drives his team handsomely, and lovers of sensations and thrills will thank him duly."

The _Court Circular_ says:--"There is always something supremely audacious about Mr. Marchmont's books. This, however, I will say, that for a long evening's solid enjoyment 'When I was Czar' would be hard to beat."

The _Nottingham Guardian_ says:--"The best story of political intrigue which has been written since 'The Prisoner of Zenda,' with which it compares for the irresistible buoyancy by which it is told and the skill in which expectation is maintained on tiptoe till the last move."

The _Freeman's Journal_ says:--"A very brilliant work, every page in it displays the dramatic talent of the author and his capacity for writing smart dialogue."

The _Birmingham Post_ says:--"A story well worth reading. It is in reality a thrilling and exciting adventure, which the reader, once he has taken up, will be indisposed to lay aside unfinished."

BY SNARE OF LOVE.

The _Dundee Courier_ says:--"To say that the clever author of 'When I was Czar' has eclipsed that stirring romance is to bring one within the sphere of the incredible. But it is true. The present novel is full to overflowing of boundless resource and enterprise, which cannot but rouse even the most blase of readers."

The _Daily Mail_ says:--"The story is undoubtedly clever. Mr. Marchmont contrives to invest his most improbable episodes with an air of plausibility, and the net result is an exciting and entertaining tale."

The _Birmingham Post_ says:--"Mr. Marchmont creates numerous thrilling situations which are worked out with dramatic power, his description of the interior of a Turkish prison, with all its horrors, being a realistic piece of work."

The _Morning Post_ says:--"The book contains plenty of adventure and excitement, and gives a further ill.u.s.tration of the author's dauntless imagination."

IN THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM.

The _Times_:--"Mr. Marchmont's tales always have plenty of go. He is well up to his standard in this busy and exciting narrative."

The _Globe_:--"Mr. A. W. Marchmont can always write an exciting story bristling with adventures and hazard, and incidents of all sorts. 'In the Cause of Freedom' furnishes a good example of his talent. Vivid, packed with drama, with action that never flags, this novel ought to appeal successfully to all lovers of romantic and spirited fiction."

_Aberdeen Free Press_:--"This is another of Mr. Marchmont's clever stories of adventure in Russia and is further proof of his ability to weave a complicated plot in which thrilling situations are worked out with dramatic power. The Author has succeeded in upholding his reputation--not an easy task when his former achievements are considered."

The _People's Sat.u.r.day Journal_:--"It is an admirable example of the type of exciting fiction for which Mr. Marchmont is justly famous, and lacks nothing in the way of plot and incident."

THE QUEEN'S ADVOCATE.

The _Daily News_ says:--"Written in a vigorous manner, adventures throng the pages, and the interest is maintained throughout."

The _Belfast Northern Whig_ says:--"As one book follows another from Mr.

Marchmont's pen we have increased breadth of treatment, more cleverly constructed plots and a closer study of human life and character. His present work affords ample evidence of this."

The _Sheffield Telegraph_ says:--"When we say that 'The Queen's Advocate' is as good as 'By Right of Sword,' we have said practically all that need be said in its praise. Once more Mr. Marchmont takes us away to those Balkans that he knows so well."

A COURIER OF FORTUNE.

The _Daily Telegraph_ says:--"An exciting romance of the 'cloak and rapier.' The fun is fast and furious; plot and counterplot, ambushes and fightings, imprisonment and escapes follow each other with a rapidity that holds the reader with a taste for adventure in a state of more or less breathless excitement to the close. Mr. Marchmont has a spirited manner in describing adventure, so that we pa.s.s on from incident to incident, each of them having its part in the development of affairs which culminate in the death of the 'Tiger of Morvaix.'"

The _Bristol Mercury_ says:--"The author's characters are drawn with such art as to make each a distinct personality. Gabrielle is a girl whose wits grow sharper in the emergency of the man she loves. 'A Courier of Fortune' is quite one of the liveliest books we have read."