"Now, Manuel, after getting three children you surely ought to know what is necessary!"
Dom Manuel shook a gray head. "My children came from a source which is exhausted."
"That would be deplorable news if I believed it, but I am sure that if you will let me take matters in hand I can convince you to the contrary—"
"Well, I am open to conviction."
"—Although I scarcely know how to begin, because I know that you will think this hard on you—"
He took her hand. Dom Manuel admitted to Niafer without reserve that here he took the Queen's hand, saying: "Do not play with me any longer, Alianora, for you must see plainly that I am now eager to serve you. So do not be embarrassed, but come to the point, and I will do what I can."
"Why, Manuel, both you and I know perfectly well that, even with your Dorothy ordered, you still hold the stork's note for another girl and another boy, to be supplied upon demand, after the manner of the Philistines."
"No, not upon demand, for the first note has nine months to run, and the other falls due even later. But what has that to do with it?"
"Now, Manuel, truly I hate to ask this of you, but my need is desperate, with all this criticizing and gossip. So for old time's sake, and for the sake of the life I gave you as a Christmas present, through telling my dear father an out-and-out story, you must let me have that first promissory note, and you must direct the stork to bring the boy baby to me in England, and not to your wife in Poictesme."
So that was what Dame Alianora had wanted.