They laughed, but their hearts were sad, this luckless American and hapless sovereign who would, if she could, be a woman.
“It is now three o'clock—the hour when you were to have called to see me,” she said, again sitting unconcernedly before him in the window seat. She was not afraid of him. She was a princess.
“I misunderstood you, your highness. I remembered the engagement, but it seems I was mistaken as to the time. I came at three in the morning!”
“And found me at home!”
“In an impregnable castle, with ogres all about.”
XII. A WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
Lorry was removed to another room before dinner, as she had promised.
After they had dined the two strangers were left alone for several hours. Anguish regaled his friend with an enthusiastic dissertation on the charms of the Countess Dagmar, lady-in-waiting to the Princess. In conclusion he said glowingly, his cigar having been out for half an hour or more because his energy had been spent in another direction.
“You haven't seen much of her, Lorry, but I tell you she is rare. And she's not betrothed to any of these confounded counts or dukes either. They all adore her but she's not committed.”