Whether I was more taken aback by the cynicism of the remark or by its sagacity, it would be fruitless to inquire. But to this pious hope I had nothing to add; and I stood feeling decidedly uncomfortable at the door of the car. There was no room in front by the side of the chauffeur, and I had received no invitation to take a seat within.
The pause was awkward, but somehow there seemed to be no help for it.
"Well?" said the lady, not without a suspicion of acerbity.
Even that I could not take for an invitation to get in. I stood acutely conscious that my embarrassment told against me.
"Aha, les Anglais!" The malice was not too genial. "Would you haf me open the door?"
I told the chauffeur to drive to the Savoy, and took the proffered seat by the side of the Crown Princess of Illyria.
The discovery has no claim to be original, but in order to find out what a woman really is, one should sit with her alone and tête-à-tête. The opportunity for frankness is not likely to be neglected upon either side, since a display of that engaging quality upon the one part seems automatically to evoke it on the other.
No sooner was I seated by the side of Mrs. Fitz than I felt more at ease. She was so sentient, so responsive; a creature who, beneath the trenchant reserve of her manner, was alive in every nerve.
She patted my knees with her fan.
"Aha, les Anglais!" In the light of the lamps, I thought her eyes were like stars. "So brave, so honest and so bête—I love them all!"