"You mean it, Dehra?" I asked in surprise. "You have always refused, hitherto; and I have asked so often."
She smiled. "Hitherto was different from now," she said.
"Thank God for the now," I added.
"We might bid them here for the last act," she suggested.
"I have presumed to hint as much to Courtney," I said; and told her how it had all come about in my talk with him that morning.
"Delightful!" she exclaimed. "And we will have a jolly party on the Garden—and let us be just like ordinary folk and have a public table—only, a little apart, of course."
"It shall be as you want," I said, and dispatched Major Moore to the Radnor Box with the invitation.
When he returned, I stepped into the corridor and gave him explicit instructions as to the supper. I had encouraged both him and Bernheim to intimate when I was about to make an Archducal faux pas, and I saw he did not approve of the public table. But I gave no heed. I knew perfectly well it was violating official etiquette for the Princess to appear there at such an hour; but it was her first request since—well, since what had occurred a few minutes before—and I was determined to gratify her. And Moore, being a good courtier, and knowing I had observed his warning, made no further protest, but saluted and departed on his mission.
When I rejoined Dehra she had moved forward and was looking over the audience.
"I have found an ex-compatriot of yours," she remarked.