“You have not asked the Queen to marry you?”
“I have not asked her Majesty to marry me.”
“Then what have you done?” incredulously.
“Your questions are somewhat searching, Fräulein. Forgive me if I do not answer them in complete detail. Her Majesty has been good enough to intimate that she considers herself engaged to me.”
“Coxcomb!” Fräulein von Staubach’s voice rose almost to a shriek. “And yet you have the effrontery to say that she is not going to marry you?”
“Pardon me, Fräulein; I said that I had not asked her. My intentions are strictly honourable, I assure you.”
“You wish, I suppose,” with deadly coldness, “to give me to understand that her Majesty proposed to you? Oh, I congratulate you on your chivalry, Count! It is exquisite, inimitable. And you mean to drag her down into misery and contempt?”
“I shall do nothing of the kind, Fräulein. As my behaviour during this interview ought to have proved to you, I am a tolerably patient person. I can wait.”
“Wait? and how long?”
“Years, if necessary, till a favourable opportunity offers itself. There will be no misery or contempt, Fräulein, for her Majesty to face, unless it is due to treachery on your part. I am in no hurry.”