"Let him ask for it again," said she, and leaving the King she came and stood before me, raising her eyes to mine. "Would you leave me, Simon?" she cried.
"Yes, I would leave you, madame," said I.
"To go whither?"
"I don't know."
"Yet the question isn't hard," interposed the King. "And the answer is—elsewhere."
"Elsewhere!" cried Nell. "But what does that mean, Sir?"
"Nay, I don't know her name," said the King. "Nor, may be, does Mr Dale yet. But he'll learn, and so, I hope, shall I, if I can be of service to him."
"I'm in no haste to learn it," cried Nell.
"Why no," laughed the King.
She turned to me again, holding out her hand as though she challenged me to refuse it.