He whispered, "come, Queen Thelma!" As in a dream, she allowed him to lead her to the stalactite chair, and when she was seated therein, she endeavored to control the rapid beating of her heart, and to smile unconcernedly on the little group that surrounded her with shouts of mingled mirth and admiration.
"Ye look just fine!" said Macfarlane with undisguised delight.

"Ye'd mak' a grand picture, wouldn't she, Errington ?" Phillip gazed at her, but said nothing--his head was too full.

Sitting there among the glittering, intertwisted, and suspended rocks,--with the blaze from the torches flashing on her winsome face and luxuriant hair,--with that half-troubled, half-happy look in her eyes, and an uncertain shadowy smile quivering on her sweet lips, the girl looked almost dangerously lovely,--Helen of Troy could scarce have fired more passionate emotion among the old-world heroes than she unconsciously excited at that moment in the minds of all who beheld her.

Duprez for once understood what it was to reverence a woman's beauty, and decided that the flippant language of compliment was out of place--he therefore said nothing, and Lorrimer, too, was silent battling bravely against the wild desires that were now, in his opinion, nothing but disloyalty to his friend.

Old Gueldmar's hearty voice roused and startled them all.
"Now Thelma, child! If thou art a queen, give orders to these lads to be moving! 'Tis a damp place to hold a court in, and thy throne must needs be a cold one.