"Baron Ulrich von Boose."
"Boose!" I cried. "So it was Boose!"
The Grand Duchess turned rather pale and drew herself up to her full height. Melusine, at her feet, had stopped playing the guitar, which was lying on the floor.
"What do you mean, monsieur?" said Aurora of Lautenburg. "Please explain yourself."
I had already recovered myself somewhat, and was vaguely conscious of my stupidity. I wanted to turn the conversation, but the Grand Duchess was not to be put off.
"Do you know Baron von Boose?"
"Excuse me, madame," I stammered. "I don't really know whether I ought, whether I can ..."
"What oughtn't you to say? What can't you say?"
I cursed my clumsy and premature exclamation, which looked like compromising in one second two months of patient approach. Thoroughly alarmed, and grasping at a straw, my eyes fastened on Melusine.
The Grand Duchess seemed to doubt the meaning of that look.