‘Oh no! not at all, thank you.’
But all the same she let him give her his arm, and help her to a seat. It was a rustic seat—one of those queer seats made of branches of trees, and it stood in an arbour formed of rose-bushes, and there was plenty of room for two; so she said:
‘Won’t you sit down, Prince?’
But he answered:
‘I really have not the time, your Majesty. I was just about to start for India, and if your Majesty has no further need of me I will go, and send an attendant.’
But she did not seem to hear the last part of his sentence, for she answered:
‘You were going away without saying good-bye to me. Perhaps, however, you intended to call as you passed the palace.’
‘I really had not intended to, your Majesty, for you seemed to have so many affairs that I might have interrupted, that I thought it as well to go without troubling you.’
‘You shouldn’t have thought that. You see I have had so many affairs of State occupying me that I could not possibly get round to call, and you didn’t choose to come and see me, which was rather, I think—however, that doesn’t matter now. I have come to ask you to stop a little longer—till the day after to-morrow, if you won’t stop after that.’
But the Prince shook his head: