She looked up at him with a smile, then gave her cup to one of the maids, and put her hand upon his arm.
"Do you know that this is the first time you have spoken to me since—since—I cannot remember?"
"One does not dare intrude upon royalty too frequently; it would be presumptuous," he said.
"In what am I royal?" she asked.
"In your beauty!" he said, and he was the only man in the room who would have dared so pointed a reply.
"Thanks," she said, with a calm smile; "you are very frank to-night."
"Am I? And why not? We do not hesitate to call the summer sky blue or the ocean vast. There are some things so palpable and generally acknowledged that to be reserved about them would be absurd."
"That will do," she said. "Since when have you learnt such eloquent phrases? What shall I sing, or shall I sing at all?"
"To please me you have but to sing to please yourself!" he said.
"Find me something then," she said, and sat down with her hands folded, looking a very queen indeed.