“Eh, bien! Then all is well!” he declared.  “My bride will hold her own wherever she goes, save with her husband.  And to him she will yield her wifely submission at all times.  Do you know what they will say—­all of them—­when they hear that Charles Rex is married at last?”

“What?” whispered Toby apprehensively.

He bent his head, still laughing.  “Shall I tell you?  Can’t you guess?”

“No.  Tell me!” she said.

He touched the soft ringlets of her hair with his lips.  “They will say, ‘God help his wife!’ mignonne.  And I—­I shall answer ’Amen’.”

She lifted her face suddenly and defiantly, her eyes afire.  “Do you know what I shall say if they do?” she said.

“What?” said Saltash, his own eyes gleaming oddly.

“I shall tell them,” said Toby tensely, “to—­to—­to go to blazes!”

He grimaced his appreciation.  “Then they will begin to pity the husband, cherie.”

She held up her lips to his, childishly, lovingly.  “I will be good,” she said.  “I will be good.  I will never say such things again.”

He kissed the trembling lips again, lightly, caressingly.  “Oh, don’t be too good!” he said.  “I couldn’t live up to it.  You shall say what you like—­do what you like.  And—­you shall be my queen!”

She caught back another sob.  Her clinging arms tightened.  “And you will be—­what you have always been,” she said—­“my king—­my king—­my king!”

In the silence that followed the passionate words, Charles Rex very gently loosened the clinging arms, and set her free.

PART IV

CHAPTER I

THE WINNING POST

“I never thought it would be like this,” said Toby.

She spoke aloud, though she was alone.  She stood at an immense window on the first floor of a busy Paris hotel and stared down into the teeming courtyard below.  Her fair face wore a whimsical expression that was half of amusement and half of discontent.  She looked absurdly young, almost childish; but her blue eyes were unmistakably wistful.

Below her seethed a crowd of vehicles of every description and the babel that came up to her was as the roar of a great torrent.  It seemed to sweep away all coherent thought, for she smiled as she gazed downwards and her look held interest in the busy scene even though the hint of melancholy lingered.  There was certainly plenty to occupy her, and it was not in her nature to be bored.

But yet at the opening of a door in the room behind her, she turned very swiftly, and in a moment her face was alight with ardent welcome.

“Ah!  Here you are!” she said.

He came forward in his quick, springy fashion, his odd eyes laughing their gay, unstable greeting into hers.  He took the hands she held out to him, and bending, lightly kissed them.