"You have preserved the future of my family and of our dynasty," he said.
Countess Ellenburg closed her long, narrow eyes. Everything about her was long and narrow, from her eyes to her views, taking in, on the way, her nose and her chin. Stenovics glanced at her with a smile of uneasy propitiation. It was so particularly important to be gracious just now—gracious both over the preservation of the dynasty and over its preserver.
"No gratitude can be too great for such a service, and no mark of gratitude too high." He glanced round to Markart, and called good-humoredly, "You, Markart there, a chair for this lady!"
Markart got a chair. Stenovics took it from him and himself prepared to offer it to Sophy. But the King rose, took it, and with a low bow presented it to the favored object of his gratitude. Sophy courtesied low, the King waited till she sat. Countess Ellenburg bestowed on her a smile of wintry congratulation.
"But for you, these fellows might—or rather would, I think—have killed my son in their blind drunkenness; it detracts in no way from your service that they did not know whom they were attacking."
There was a moment's silence. Sophy was still nervous in such company; she was also uneasily conscious of a most intense gaze directed at her by General Stenovics. But she spoke out.
"They knew perfectly well, sir," she said.
"They knew the Prince?" he asked sharply. "Why do you say that? It was dark."
"Not in the street, sir. The illuminations lit it up."
"But they were very drunk."