"Ah, why?" He turned to her suddenly. "Do you love your country, Miss Wellington?"
"What an absurd question! Of course I do."
"Easily answered," replied the Prince, "but think a moment. I said love. That love which inspired your women to send their sons and husbands to die for their country in your Civil War; the love that exalted Charlotte Corday. Have you breathed the quicker when you saw your flag in foreign lands?" He looked at her strangely. "Would you loathe the man you loved if you learnt he had injured your country? Think, Miss Wellington."
"Your fervor renders it quite impossible for me to think; if it will satisfy you I will say I don't believe I begin to know what patriotism is. Yet I would not have you think I am altogether shallow. Sir Clarence Pembroke has praised my grasp of British affairs. I have always regarded that as quite a compliment."
"You have reason. You know, we know, that the American woman who would move in the tense affairs of the world must find her opportunity in Europe. It does not exist here."
"And never can exist, in a republic, I imagine," said the girl, "at least in a republic constituted as ours is."
"No, surely not. By-the-bye, who is your Secretary of the Navy? Your Attorney-General?"
"Help!" cried the girl in mock despair. "Really, Prince Koltsoff, I must ask you to consider your demonstration of my unfitness to even consider myself an American complete. Further humiliation is unnecessary. At least I suppose I should feel humiliated. But somehow, I 'm not. That's the pitiable part of it."
"And yet, Miss Wellington, have you ever considered what would lie before you with your,—pardon me,—your beauty and your wit, in Europe?"
"No, I never have," said Anne not quite truthfully. "Please, Prince Koltsoff, let us change the subject."