Anne opened her eyes very wide and said to Charlemagne, "You see what you've done? Elizabeth is going to ask you to marry her."
Charlemagne smiled at Elizabeth. "No such good luck. There are too many young fellows who will accept her before she gives me the chance."
Elizabeth laughed back, "Don't be too sure that you'll escape."
Anne's delicate eyebrows were raised. "Of course she is joking; no woman would really ask a man——"
Charlemagne sighed. "I wish one woman would."
Anne's lashes fluttered. "Why don't you ask her?" she challenged.
He shrugged his shoulders. "I feel weak in the knees when I think of it," he said, "for fear she might say 'no'."
"Faint heart," I murmured, but no one paid any attention to me.
It seemed to me, after that, as if some of the brightness had gone out of Elizabeth's face. But Anne fairly scintillated. And she was exceedingly amiable to Elizabeth.
"Ask the count first," I heard her say, "he's simply charming."