“No girl,” gallantly admitted his friend, “can say fairer than that.”
“It is certainly very encouraging,” said my lord.
“Gentlemen’s Cloak-Room to the right!” said a Hussar of Death or Honour.
“Thank you, we’ve been,” said Mr. Woodhouse Adams.
“This way, messieurs!” said Baron Hugo von Müsselsaroffsir. “His Highness the Hereditary Grand Duke of Valeria will receive you at the head of the stairs.”
At the head of the stairs, indeed, His Highness was receiving his guests with all the circumstance of Royalty. He held great state, this puissant prince who had so notably enriched the land of his fathers by an heroic neutrality throughout the war. He wore the blue cordon of the Order of Credit and, over his heart, the Diamond Cross of Discretion. He said:
“How do you do, Lord Quorn?”
“Thank you, sir, I am very well,” returned my lord.
“And you, Mr. Woodhouse Eves?”
“Adams to you, sir,” said that gentleman. “But otherwise I am well, thank you.”