Before she could finish the sentence the King put his hand over her mouth.
"My ... my ... my dear Susy ... I'm very fond of you ... but don't begin by saying stupid things.... I am here ... incog ... incognito. Call me your little Cri-Cri, Susy...."
"My dear," she replied, "introduce me to your friend."
"Eh," cried the King, "if I'm not forgetting the most elementary obligations of the protocol; but after fourteen whiskeys, and good whiskey, too, though I've better here.... Susy don't drink any, she prefers gooseberry syrup ... queer taste, isn't it?"
Susy saw the conversation was getting away from the point, so repeated her request:
"Introduce me to your friend."
Frederick-Christian glanced at his companion and then burst out laughing:
"What is your name, anyway?"
Fandor did not need to ask that question of the King. The moment he had set eyes on him in Raxim's he recognized in the sturdy tippler his Majesty Frederick-Christian II, King of Hesse-Weimar, on one of his periodic sprees. It was this fact which had made him break his rule and indulge freely himself.
With a serious air he explained: