"No, I'm not, Your Highness; he hasn't finished his breakfast."
"You're very wise," the Princess laughed.
Lady Helen shook her head. "You see, I've known Major Dalberg a long time," she said.
"Oh! then you had met before the night of the Ball?"
I looked at Dehra wonderingly. Had she forgotten that I myself had told her, on the terrace, how long I had known the Radnors.
"We were old dinner and cotillon partners in Washington," Lady Helen explained. "He was very kind to me there."
"That wasn't a very difficult task, was it, Major Dalberg?" Dehra asked, fixing her blue eyes on my face.
"Please, Your Highness—please," exclaimed Lady Helen, holding up her hands.
"I think," I replied, "that Lady Helen is, in herself, the best answer to Your Highness's question."
Just then there came a step in the corridor and the King stood in the doorway.