"With pleasure," he answered, "if that will not make my visit too long."
"Too long, your Majesty! How could it be too long?"
"Well, then, you may expect me."
How prepare for les détails? Madame de Sevigny writes somewhere, "que les détails sont aussi chers à ceux que nous aimons, qu'ils sont ennuyeux aux autres."
The servants laid the traditional red carpet on the staircase. Palms and plants were put in every possible place.
At two o'clock the servants were already on the watch. The porte-cochère was wide open and the concierge all in a flutter. The piano-tuner, who had just spent an hour tuning my Bechstein, had departed when a cart drew up in front of the door. What do you think it was? Nothing less than the King's own piano, an upright one, though it did connive at deception, as you will see. It was one of those pianos with which one could, by turning a key, lower the whole keyboard by half-tones, so that a barytone could masquerade as a tenor and spare the pianist the trouble of transposing the music, and no one would be the wiser.
This was emotion No. 1.
Emotion No. 2: a carriage which stood before the door brought Mr. Halstrum, the pianist.
Emotion No. 3 was another carriage full of things—a music-stand, a quantity of music-books, his Majesty's spectacles, and a mysterious basket.
Emotion No. 4: the servants, with all their heads out of the window, spied a carriage coming full tilt up the street. In it was M. Odman, the best tenor from the Opera.