She was there, very fluffy, very brilliant, and flustered and adorable, the light from the sconces playing over her bare arms and shoulders and spinning all sorts of aureoles around her bright hair. Hah! She had him alone now. She was safe; she could breathe again. And he might harp on the Austins all he chose. Let him!
"No, I can't have cigarettes," she explained, "because it isn't good for my voice. I'm supposed to possess a voice, you know."
"It's about the sweetest voice I ever heard," he said so sincerely that the bright tint in her cheeks deepened.
"That is nicer than a compliment," she said, looking at him with a little laugh of pleasure. He nodded, watching the smoke rings drifting through the hall.
"Do you know something?" he said.
"Not very much. What?"
"If I were a great matrimonial prize——"
"You are, aren't you?"
"If I was," he continued, ignoring her, "like a king or a grand duke——"
"Exactly."