"My consent was not asked."
"Had it been?"
"I could not have given it."
"That I think," said the Prince, "would have been the perfectly correct attitude until such time as the King gave his. It is for that we have been waiting; had it not been so I should have come to you earlier."
"Early or late, my answer to your Highness would always be the same."
"May I ask upon what grounds?"
"I would ask, sir, in return, upon what grounds is it suitable that you should marry my daughter?"
"It so happens," replied Max, "that I am in love with her."
"What precisely, sir, to your mind does the phrase 'being in love' convey?"
The Prince saw that the tussle was coming; he gathered his thoughts together, then said, "An intense personal desire to endow a certain woman with motherhood."