‘You also, my lord!’
‘Plaît-il?’
‘Oh, you understand me very well.’
‘Madam, upon my honour! I am a dull dog that can see but one thing at a time.’
She forced herself to speak. ‘I ask you, then, if this is the day of all days when you choose to pass by me in your festival gear? I ask if you also are with the rest of them?’
He made as if he would spread his hands out—the motion was enough. It said—though he was silent—‘Madam, I am no better than other men.’
‘Oh, I believe it, I believe it! You are no better indeed; but I had thought you wiser.’
He caught at the word, and rubbed his chin over it. ‘Hey, my faith, madam—wiser!’
The Queen tapped her foot. ‘If I had said kinder, I might have betrayed myself for a fool. Kindness, wisdom, generosity, pity! In all these things I must believe you to be as other men. Is it not so?’
Seeing her clouded eyes, he did not affect to laugh any more. He was either a bad courtier or one supremely expert; for he spoke as irritably as he felt.