The silence was prolonged. Then he glanced up to find her watching him with a slight smile curving her lips.
“To you,” she said, “I must seem very old-fashioned. Oh, yes, I can understand your point of view. If I have not travelled I have at least read, and your English books make these things clear enough. But here we are surrounded with the old customs. It is not possible to escape from them. We are almost mediæval.”
“I am looking forward to studying your country closely,” he said. “What I have seen of it has charmed me. So far I have come across but one thing which I would gladly change.”
“And that?” she asked.
“Is the uniform of the Thetian Guards,” he answered, turning slightly in his chair. “I must confess that my body was never made for such gorgeousness.”
She laughed and struck the gong.
“Basil will show you to my brother’s room,” she said. “Wear any of his clothes you choose.”
He rose with alacrity.
“You will be safe—alone?” he asked, with a doubtful glance towards the door.
She shrugged her shoulders.