"Command!" she repeated nervously. "Of the King?"
"Or request," he said, "which is the same."
"But—" she began, and stopped; held by a sound, as of some one moving, near the window.
"Shall I read it, or—"
She had started to look behind her; but abruptly caught herself, and seemed about to frame some irrelevant response, when his voice went on: "The King desires to change the date set for your marriage with his kinsman, the Marquis de Beauvillers."
"Change?" she echoed.
"Yes; to hasten it." If the Governor had expected from her hostility, or perverseness, he was agreeably disappointed; the girl evinced neither pleasure nor disapproval; only stood in the same attitude of expectancy, with head half turned.
"His Majesty's reasons for this step—"
"Can't we—can't we, at least, postpone considering them?"
Again he regarded her more closely. "What better time than the present?"