Fiction > Book editions > London, 1885 - Prince Otto

A ROMANCE 255
highway, and lookmg pleasantly around him as
he walked. From time to time he paused, took
out his note-book and made an entry Avith a
pencil ; and any spy who had been near enough
would have heard him mumbling words as
though he were a poet testing verses. The voice
of the wheels was still faint, and it was plain
the traveller had far outstripped his carriage.
He had drawn very near to where the
Princess lay asleep, before his eye alighted on
her ; but when it did he started, pocketed his
note-book, and approached. There was a mile-
stone close to where she lay ; and he sat down
on that and coolly studied her. She lay upon
one side, all curled and sunken, her brow^n
one bare arm, the other stretched out, limp and
dimpled. Her young body, like a thing thrown
down, had scarce a mark of life. Her breathing
stirred her not. The deadliest fatigue was thus
confessed in every language of the sleeping
flesh. The traveller smiled grimly. As though he
had looked upon a statue, he made a grudging
inventory of her charms : the figure in that
touching freedom of forgetfulness surprised him ;
the flush of slumber became her like a flower.
' Upon my word,' he thought, ' I did not
think the girl could be so pretty. And to
think,' he added, ' that I am under obligation
not to use one Avord of this ! '