Oh, how lovely she was at that moment, my dear, my perfect dear!
"But, caro, of course I cannot run away with you and be married. I must stay with father, cannot you see that?"
Well, of course I did, there were no two words about it. "Very well," I answered, "Little Lady of my heart, I'll stick by the old chap too. I've crept up here in a sort of underhand way, but not for underhand reasons. After all, I've just as much right to love you as anybody else in this world."
I took her by her sweet hands and I laughed in her face.
"I'm not the Duke of Perth," I said, "but, but, Juanita—?"
There came a little knocking at the door.
Juanita swirled round, flung up her arm—I saw her sweet face glowing for an instant—and then she seemed to whirl away like an autumn leaf.
The only thing I could possibly do was to light a cigarette.
Juanita, having met me, having delivered her ultimatum, having turned me into a jelly, flitted away quite oblivious of the fact that I was a burglar, an intruder into what was probably the most guarded and secret place in Europe at that moment.
My heart sang high music, and that was well. But at the same time I recognized that I was in the deuce of a mess and had planned out no course of action at all.