'As if I could!' cried Winifred, full of the tenderest compassion.
'Very well then; this is the last meeting. "My dear kind mistress" (it's Ethelinda speaking to you now), "that I once loved so dearly in the happy days when I was innocent and good, I couldn't die till I had asked you to forgive me. Let your poor wicked maid-of-honour kiss your hand just once more as she used to do; tell her you forgive her about that arsenic." Now then, Winnie!'
'I--I _can't_, Archie!' sobbed Winifred, quite melted by this pathetic appeal.
'If you don't, she'll think you're angry still, and won't forgive her,' said Archie. 'Just you listen; this is her now: "Won't you say one little word, Your Majesty; you might as well. When I'm gone and mouldering away in my felon's grave it will be too late then, and you'll be sorry. It's the last thing I shall ever ask you!"'
'Oh, Ethelinda, darling, _don't_!' implored her Queen; 'don't go on talking in that dreadful way; I can't bear it. Archie, I _must_ forgive her now!'
'Oh yes, forgive her,' he said with approval; 'queens shouldn't sulk or bear malice.'
'It's all right,' said Winifred briskly, as she dried her eyes; 'she's quite good again. Now let's play at something not quite so horrid!'
'When we've done with this, we will; but it isn't half over yet; there's all the execution to come. It's the fatal day now, the dismal scaffold is erected' (here he made a rough platform and a neat little block with the books), 'the sheriff is mounting guard over it' (and Archie propped up the unfortunate jester against a workbox so that he overlooked the scaffold); 'the trembling criminal is brought out amidst the groans of the populace (groan, Winnie, can't you?)'
'I shan't groan,' said Winnie, rebelliously; 'I'm a queen, not a populace. Archie, you won't really cut off her head, will you?'
'Don't be a little duffer,' said he; 'the end is to be a surprise, so I can't tell you what it is till it comes. You've heard of pardons arriving just in time, haven't you? Very well then. Only I don't say one will arrive here, you know, I only say, wait!'
'And now,' he went on, 'I'm not the King any longer, I'm the headsman; and--and I say, Winnie, perhaps you'd better hide your face now; a queen wouldn't look on at the execution, really; at least a _nice_ queen wouldn't!'
