"Are you always working, Monsieur Vignerte?" asked Aurora, with a smile tinged with delicate irony.
"Madam!" I murmured, overcome.
"Oh! I have no intention of taking you from your exalted pupil, but I cannot help remembering that when the Grand Duke brought you here, it was with a kindly idea of lending you to me occasionally. I have only myself to blame for not taking advantage of his forethought before."
My doubts as to whether she was serious or not nailed me, dumb, to the spot.
"Do you play bridge?" she asked.
"Yes—a little," I stammered, blessing Kessel and old Colonel von Wendel, to whom I owed this latest accomplishment.
"We—that is, Fräulein von Graffenfried, Lieutenant von Hagen and I—play bridge every evening. You shall make a fourth. You will do us a much greater service than you imagine," she added, smiling. "I need hardly add that you must come when you like."
"I understand, too," she continued, "that you have some most interesting French books. I do a certain amount of reading, and should be very glad to become acquainted with them, providing I'm not robbing that good Frau von Wendel."
I blushed atrociously.
"Very well, then," she said, noticing nothing. "You will come when you like, Monsieur Vignerte; but if you will let me give you further proof of my gratitude by making a request, may I say that I shall be happy to see you in my boudoir this evening, about half-past nine."