"For a dreamer, you're wonderfully brave," she said. "Do you appreciate that you had the audacity to propose to the Princess Royal of Valeria while she sat in the Royal Box before all the fashion of Dornlitz?"
"My dear," said I, "I would propose to her a dozen times under like conditions if I thought, at the end, she would do as she has done to-night."
"If she had known that, she might have put you to the test."
"It would have made her wait only the longer for that kiss she wants," I said.
"Oh, I fancy, sir, she could have had your kiss without accepting you. She needed only to give you half a chance."
"I think," said I, "even less than half a chance from you, dear, would have been successful."
She studied her fan a moment. "From me, only?" she asked.
"From you, only," I said. "It would require a trifle more than half a chance from anyone else."
"Even from the Lady Helen Radnor?" she asked.
I watched her face a moment. There was, I felt, only one way to play this out.