“Ah! and why did you ask me?”
“Just,” he replied in a subdued voice, “to learn it from you.”
“Ah!” she exclaimed evenly.
The soft white hand played nervously with the gilt arm of her chair, but the woman’s closed lips uttered no protest.
“Have you had tea?” He resumed his questions in the same cold, suspicious tone.
“Yes. Would you like a cup? I can warm it up.”
“No, thanks. You know I hate tea. Did you have it alone?”
“Alone!” she replied, with a fleeting smile of bitterness.
“Hasn’t one of your usual courtiers been?”
“I haven’t many of them, and even those few have abandoned me,” she murmured, with an accent of weariness.