"There I cannot judge," said Belvane, "until I know your Royal Highness better." She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. "Is your Royal Highness very—dashing?"
"I—er—well—er—one—that is to say." He waded on uncomfortably, feeling less dashing every moment. He should have realised at once that it was an impossible question to answer.
"Your Royal Highness," said Belvane modestly, "must not be too dashing with us poor Euralians."
For the fourth time Udo explained that he had come there to speak to her severely, and that Belvane seemed to have mistaken his purpose.
"Oh, forgive me, Prince Udo," she begged. "I quite thought that you had come out to commune soul to soul with a fellow-lover of the beautiful."
"N—no," said Udo; "not exactly."
"Then what is it?" she cried, clasping her hands eagerly together. "I know it will be something exciting."
Udo stood up. He felt that he could be more severe a little farther off. He moved a few yards away, and then turned round towards her, resting his elbow on the sundial.
"Countess," he began sternly, "ten days ago, as I was starting on my journey hither, I was suddenly——"
"Just a moment," said Belvane, whispering eagerly to herself rather than to him, and she jumped up with a cushion from the seat where she was sitting, and ran across and arranged it under his elbow. "He would have been so uncomfortable," she murmured, and she hurried back to her seat again and sat down and gazed at him, with her elbows on her knees and her chin resting on her hands. "Now go on telling me," she said breathlessly.