didn't you tell me, in the first place, that I was a king, and that
I might get you in trouble if you were found with me? Why, they may
even take me for an emperor or a mikado--who knows? And then look at
all the trouble we'd be in."

Which was Barney's way of humoring a maniac.

"And they might even shave off your beautiful beard."

Which was the girl's way.

"Do you think that you would like me better in the green wastebasket
hat with the red roses?" asked Barney.

A very sad look came into the girl's eyes. It was pitiful to think
that this big, handsome young man, for whose return to the throne
all Lutha had prayed for ten long years, was only a silly half-wit.
What might he not have accomplished for his people had this terrible
misfortune not overtaken him! In every other way he seemed fitted to
be the savior of his country. If she could but make him remember!

"Your majesty," she said, "do you not recall the time that your
father came upon a state visit to my father's castle? You were a
little boy then. He brought you with him. I was a little girl, and
we played together. You would not let me call you 'highness,' but
insisted that I should always call you Leopold. When I forgot you
would accuse me of lese-majeste, and sentence me to--to punishment."

"What was the punishment?" asked Barney, noticing her hesitation and
wishing to encourage her in the pretty turn her dementia had taken.