“I shall be only too glad to come and see you,” said the Resident, “I have not forgotten the pleasure of my last journey to your home.”
“And you will come too?” said the Princess quickly; and she turned her great dark eyes upon Hilton, gazing at him fixedly the while.
“I—er—really I hardly think I can leave.”
“You will not come?” she cried, with an impetuous jerk of the head. “You think I am a savage, and you despise my ways. Mr Harley will tell you I have tried for years to learn your English customs and to speak your language. It is not fair.”
“Indeed,” cried Hilton, eager to make up for what the visitor evidently considered a slight, “I only hesitated on the score of duty.”
“You would not care to come,” she said, with the injured look of a spoiled child.
“Indeed I should,” exclaimed Hilton, “and I will come.”
“You will come?” she cried, with her dark eyes flashing.
“Yes, indeed I will.”
She leaned towards him, speaking eagerly: