‘A pleasant jest,’ said the Princess rather tremulously, ‘to end a memorable evening.’
‘I never jest when I am gambling,’ said the Black Domino. Then he drew himself up and removed his domino. ‘Is it possible you do not recognise me, mother?’ he said.
The Princess’s hands made a sudden quick movement together.
‘Oh, Leonard! Leonard!’ she cried; ‘when you ought to have been among the wigwams! How tiresome of you!’
‘Even so, but I preferred, like you, to be at Monte Carlo. I have been here two months, and I have played every day since I saw you last. The rest of my time was occupied in copying pages out of guidebooks.’
Sophia could not restrain herself. She threw her arms round his neck and embraced him, kissing him on both cheeks.
‘But you are magnificent!’ she cried. ‘I never thought the world contained so splendid a man! And how you have grown! I left you a little boy, now you look a man of twenty.’
‘I am nearly twenty-one,’ he said.
‘Yes, you must be. How time flies! Leonard, how can you keep your hands still? You shall teach me.’
‘It is practice, and natural predisposition to keep quiet at the tables,’ he said. ‘I inherited the second from you, dear mother, and I have had a good deal of the other on my own account.’