"You did right, my friend," she said to the Duke. "Albert is a brave and loyal fellow."
"He is an idiot," he replied, "whose idiocy we must respect."
"All the same he has a quality which you and most of the other men of your age do not possess, and he is not afraid of being laughed at; and that gives him enormous moral strength."
"You find that a virtue, Princess?"
"Indeed I do. He does what he wants without bothering about what people will say."
"But does he really know what they do say of him?"
"You know that Albert and I have been friends since childhood," said the Princess. "He is twenty-eight, I am thirty, which gives me a little advantage perhaps, and I talk to him quite as a comrade. It is true that he has never had any love affairs with women, and they joke him about it. Albert does not disguise it. 'I shall always be as I am,' he says, 'until I really love.'"
"But he is in love now."
The Princess saw that the Duke enjoyed seeing her hesitation before answering. So she said nothing at all, but held out her hand; which he kissed respectfully and went his way.