“From Princess Elsie....”
“They say she’s stupid, but I do not know that intellect is always a blessing!” the King declared, drooping his eyes to his abdomen, with an air of pensive modesty.
“Poor child, she writes she is tied to the shore, so that I suppose she is unable to leave dear England.”
“Tied to it?”
“And bound till goodness knows.”
“As was Andromeda!” the King sententiously exclaimed.... “She would have little, or maybe nothing, to wear,” he clairvoyantly went on: “I see her standing shivering, waiting for Yousef.... Chained by the leg, perhaps, exposed to the howling winds.”[3]
“Nonsense. She means to say she can’t get away yet on account of her engagements: that’s all.”
“After Cowes-week,” Lady Something put in, “she is due to pay a round of visits before joining her parents in the North.”
“How I envy her,” the Archduchess sighed, “amid that entrancing scene....”
Lady Something looked attendrie.