She laughed. "You mean you don't want to think so,——madame is very beautiful—n'est ce pas?"
"Do you know her?" I asked evasively.
"No, monsieur; do you?"
"I have met her."
"Oh! Oh!" she exclaimed. Then she looked at me quickly. "I thought she received no visitors."
I shrugged my shoulders. "The lady does not interest me," I said; "let us talk of something else."
"Of the American Archduke, then," she suggested.
"Why not of yourself?" I urged.
"I am only a Masque—the American may be a King."
"Not likely," I scoffed.