"You will have plenty of agreeable occupation in time of peace. But it is better that you should be married soon, before you become so entangled with the ladies of Madrid as to make your marriage impossible."
"Saving the last clause," said Don John boldly, "I am altogether of your Majesty's opinion. But I fear no entanglements here."
"No--you do not fear them. On the contrary, you live in them as if they were your element."
"No man can say that," answered Don John.
"You contradict me again. Pray, if you have no entanglements, how comes it that you have a lady's letter in your glove?"
"I cannot tell whether it was a lady's letter or a man's."
"Have you not read it?"
"Yes."
"And you refused to show it to me on the ground that it was a woman's secret?"
"I had not read it then. It was not signed, and it might well have been written by a man."