I would be content to serve you in all chivalry, and in all honor, until death, if you would reward me with a kind word and a smile." His handsome young face looked so eager, so wistful, that the coquette's heart smote her for one half moment.

Knowing what was before him, was it not too cruel to lead him on?
But the short-lived feeling of compunction soon died.

She bent her head and the perfume of the flowers she carried reached him.
"Would you be my knight ?" she said; "would you go through danger and peril to serve me ?" "I would die for you," he replied, simply; "quite content, if you smiled on me as I died." "Do you mean it, without any romance or nonsense?
Seriously, would you, to serve me ?" "Yes: and count all loss as gain." "Then you shall be my knight, my friend.

I am not a queen.

I have no sword to lay on your shoulder, but I place my hand in yours, and I accept your loyal service." She laid her white hand in his, and the touch of those slender fingers thrilled him as nothing had ever done before.
"I am your sovereign liege," she said, with a smile.