She turned her face away. Her nervous hands were clasped.
“When we are betrothed,” she said.
“Sado-ko, you know I am your lover.”
“So it is said.”
“Who but a lover should possess this likeness of your Highness?”
“You are not my lover—yet.”
“I will be so,” said Komatzu. “Give me, I repeat, the portrait of your Highness.”
She turned toward him, like one brought suddenly to desperate bay.
“Why require this of me? You have already learned there is no such picture.”
“What, you admit it!”