She got up impulsively and held out her hands; a gorgeous creature in her rich clothes and vivid loveliness, illuminated by the tawny light of the flaming pine knots.
“Forgive me,” she said quickly. “I am ashamed of myself. I have been idle and frivolous, tell me how I can help.”
He kissed her hands in instant gratitude; he had always found her his best friend; she was more intelligent, perhaps more courageous than he, but she had managed never to offend him with her superiority, and she always soothed him with her firmness and encouraged him with her high spirits.
She smiled now with a certain tenderness at this magnificent-looking prince who was so downcast and so almost helpless; in her wild heart she perhaps a little despised him; certainly he was not her ideal hero, for all his strength and handsomeness and charm, but both out of kindness and interest she was his ally.
“Come,” she said, “forget, sire, that I am a woman, and talk to me as if I was your minister.”
She took the seat at the table he had just left and drew her coat round her, leaning back and looking at Augustus, who remained standing by the fire.
“My dear,” he answered, “I do not know if affairs could be much worse.”
“This Diet is not going to help you?”
“Would to God I had never had to summon it!” exclaimed the King-Elector. “The King of Sweden has as much influence there as I!”
“Ah!” murmured Aurora, “they are not loyal to you, these Polish princes?”