Adventure Magazine Cover — page 114: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

678 vealed by their noisy merriment. The table was shaped like a horseshoe—for luck, Caroline declared. Two large throne-like chairs had been placed at the head for the King and hostess, an archway of tall palms waving above these important figures, as if especially to distinguish them from the common fry. By each plate a double frame held, as a gift, a portrait of Caroline and Gisdel, the former in dancing dress, the latter in Coronation robes. At the back of the dainty folding case, the elaborate menu revealed its appe- tizing list. In the center of the table a tall birthday- cake, resembling a wedding-cake in every particular, towered upwards in banks of snowy sugar. To the vast amusement of the guests, twenty colored candles burned their silent watch around the edifice, in rep- resentation, presumably, of Caroline’s age. Well her intimates knew she was nearer thirty if the truth were told, and the whis- pered word passed from mouth to mouth: ‘‘A cunning trick to hoodwink the King. So she is adopting the pose of youth!” To Gisdel the scene proved entrancing. The shouts of laughter, the jests hurled to and fro across the table, the atmosphere of Bohemian festivity, bewildered and en- thralled. Merely to watch Caroline was a revelation. She remained in touch with all her guests, even far away at the end of the horseshoe. Her laughter rang through the room like rippling music. Her bright sallies flew like lightning, while the words whispered only for Gisdel’s ear were strangely sweet and subtle. “T am going to make a speech,” she told him. ‘‘I mean to propose your health. This feast is really yours, and they will not be happy unless we have the King’s toast.” Gisdel flushed pleasurably. Already the wine had mounted to his head, making him almost as noisy and demonstrative as the surrounding company. “T dare say you think it is a very great thing to be a King,” he replied, “‘but really I believe you people have a far better time. If you came to one of the State banquets at the Palace you would be bored to death. Never the sound of a laugh, and nobody speaks above a monotone. I assure you I sometimes feel inclined to go to sleep or yawn my head off. Of course it is all the fault of my mother. She in- sists upon retaining the old stiff régime; Adventure anything like levity would paralyze her with horror.” Caroline smiled sympathetically. ‘I often think of the Queen,” she said, ‘‘and her futile efforts to banish me from Lam- basa. But for my King, and his bold decree that I should be tolerated in the Capital, I might now be languishing in Paris, an exile from my native land. Ah, me! That would have been a loss for Lambasa!”’ She acted a kind of mock despair before capping her words with a shout of laughter, spontaneous as the mirth of a child rushing out of school. Gisdel pressed her hand under the table. “You are like fire!’”’ he whispered. ‘‘ You set me in a flame! Are you a witch, Caro- line? Your beauty torments me—I wish you were less beautiful! What is that large white ornament quivering on a wire at the top of the cake?”’ He bent forward, screwing up his eyes, for he had always been short-sighted. For a moment the hostess hesitated, then replied lightly: “Tt is a moth to signify night, supposed to be hovering over the twenty candles which mark my age. A pretty idea—is it not? You see I am still something of a child.” Gisdel looked at her sharply with a sud- den flash of intelligence. ‘“T believe,’ he said, “‘you meant the moth for me. If so, you were not far wrong. You know I have singed my wings already.” Caroline shook her head, and refilled his glass. “Tt is time for the speeches,” she said. ‘“Now we shall be really merry—we shall swim in wine!” She rose to her feet, and a burst of ap- plause greeted the action. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, fill your glasses!” she cried. “I rise to propose the toast of the King!” A wild clapping of hands greeted the words. Gisdel heard the sound as in a dream; he was gazing in mad adoration at the vivacious and smiling speaker. “King Gisdel,’’ continued the silvery voice, “is with us to-night as a friend. He has come, privately, to prove that, despite his illustrious birth and the slavery of a high position, he is just a man at heart, ready to befriend a woman who dances for her bread.” Caroline’s words were spoken with dra- COMICLOOCKKS. ECO S|