“But what do you expect, monsieur, when I find you in my rooms—?”
“But what does madame la princesse expect when I find she had been to mine—and brought something valuable away with her, too!”
“I had a reason—”
“So had I.”
“What was it?”
“Perhaps it was to see madame la princesse alone—secretly—without exciting the jealousy, which I understand is supernormal, of monsieur le prince.”
“But why should you wish to see me alone?” she demanded, with widening eyes.
“Perhaps to beg madame’s permission to offer her what may possibly prove some slight consolation.”
She weighed his words in dark distrust. What was this consolation? What his game? His attitude remained consistently too deferential and punctilious for one to suspect that by consolation he meant love-making.
“But how did you get in?”