He struck the bell. "Bring me the London News," he said to the boy. Opening it at the frontispiece he pushed it across to me.
"Has she changed much since you saw her?" he asked, and smiled.
It was a woman's face that looked at me from the page; and, though it was six years since I had seen it last, I recognized it instantly. There was, however, a certain coldness in the eyes and a firm set of the lip and jaw that were new to me. But, as I looked, they seemed to soften, and I could have sworn that for an instant the Princess Dehra of Valeria smiled at me most sweetly—even as once she herself had done.
"You seem uncommonly well pleased with the lady," Courtney observed.
I handed back the News.
"You have not answered my question," he insisted.
"Look here, Courtney," I said, "it seems to me you are infernally inquisitive to-night."
"Maybe I am—only, I wanted to know something," and he laughed softly.
"Well?"
"I think I know it now," he said.