Both were well-seasoned warriors.
The ballroom was so arranged that all about were small groves of exotics, with openings just large enough for a couple to retreat into, and talk scandal or flirt, as the case might be. Little tables were there placed, and footmen went in and out handing refreshments.
Korynthia drew Zeneida into one of these floral retreats, and, as they sat down together, whispered laughingly into her ear:
"You understood me. I expected no less from your clever intellect."
Zeneida, adopting her tone, replied in equally laughing voice.
"That I have brought you the dove out of her nest?"
"Just so—that we have thus become allies?" resumed the Princess.
"An alliance ad hoc, in the language of diplomacy," interpreted Fräulein Ilmarinen.
"For the object of discomfiting a third adversary," filled in Korynthia.
"And meanwhile England and Russia have signed defensive and offensive alliance—"