"Ma foi," said his Highness, at length, "I have never known such a passion for sunrises. Shortly we shall have them announced as 'Patronized by the Nobility.'"
The Baroness said only, with an ellipsis, "Her own cousin, too!" [Footnote: By courtesy rather than legally; Mademoiselle Berlin was, however, undoubtedly the Elector of Badenburg's sister, though on the wrong side of the blanket; and to her (second) son by Louis Quinze his French Majesty accorded the title of Comte de Châteauroux.]
"Victoria," observed the Grand Duke, "has always had the highest regard for her family; but in this she is going too far—"
"Yes," said the Baroness; "as far as Vienna."
"—and I shall tell her that there are limits, Pardieu," the Grand Duke emphatically repeated, "that there are limits."
"Whereupon, if I am not mistaken, she will reply that there are—baronesses."
"I shall then appeal to her better nature—"
"You will find it," said the Baroness, "strangely hard of hearing."
"—and afterward I shall have de Châteauroux arrested."
"On what grounds, your Highness?"