“I talk of mine, Madame.”

“What has it to do with the matter in hand, Your Highness?”

To her further bewilderment he smiled, with composure, and, she thought, a touch of scorn.

“I believe, Madame, in predestination.”

“Your Highness is confusing me with Leyden Logic,” she answered; “it is not this we are speaking of——”

“It affects what we speak of, Madame.”

She bit her lip.

“How, Highness?”

“Because I do not believe, Madame, that I am predestined to be the tool of the King of France. The Princes of my House have left behind them records that teach me different aims and higher ambitions.”