"Excuse me not going indoors, but these shady spots are so pleasant that I could pass my life beneath them. I am rather weary of interiors. For a fortnight I have been received under roofs—and I like open air, flowers and the shade of foliage. Might I not have a drink of milk in this bower?"
"What a mean refreshment, your highness!" faltered the baron.
"I prefer it, with new-laid eggs, my lord. Such formed my feasts at Schoenbrunn."
All of a sudden, Labrie, puffed up with pride in a showy livery, and holding a damask napkin, appeared in the jessamine hung arbor which the archduchess was eyeing covetously.
"The refreshment is ready for your royal highness," he said with a neat mingling of respect and serenity.
"Am I housed by an enchanter?" exclaimed the princess, darting into the bower.
The perturbed baron forgot etiquette to leave the gentleman in black and run after his guest.
Philip and Andrea looked at each other with even more anxiety than astonishment.
Under the twining clematis, jessamine and honeysuckle an oval table was set, dazzling from the whiteness of the damask cloth and the carved bullion plate upon it. Ten sets of silver awaited as many guests. A choice but strange collation attracted the visitor's gaze. Foreign fruit preserved in sugar; cake and crackers from Aleppo and Madeira, oranges and melons of uncommon size, set in large vases. The richest and noblest wines glittered in all hues of ruby and topaz in four cut-glass Persian decanters. The milk asked for filled a crystal cup.