"I believe you have actually forgotten that this was our dance, Mr. Bastable," she said with a reproachful look and a smile. She always spoke English, and spoke it remarkably well.
I had forgotten it, and mumbled a lame apology.
"Let us sit out the remainder of it then. I am rather tired. And you look as if the weight of a throne were on your shoulders. Are you worried?"
I dropped into the seat by her side and began to make small talk, although every pulse in my body was leaping with the desire to speak of the feeling that filled my heart.
At length she spoke of Chalice. "You were talking to her just now," she said, "and appeared to be discussing some very grave subject."
I resolved suddenly to get the truth from her. "It was about you, in fact."
"I don’t know whether you’ll think I’m putting my foot in it, but I should like to tell you something."
"What a grave preface!" she said jestingly, but with an earnest look.
I fidgeted uneasily under her gaze. "The fact is, I heard something from von Felsen, and Chalice confirmed it--about you and Prince von Graven."
She pressed her hands together quickly, and a tinge of colour crept up into her cheeks. "Chalice confirmed it?" she repeated. "What did she say?"
"Well, the fact is--you see, when you and the Prince were standing together in the middle of the room a while back, a whole lot of people were staring at you; and--there was a lot of talk as to what the Kaiser would be likely to do when he--when he heard about you two."
I kept my eyes on the ground and felt many parts of a fool in the pause which followed. Then Althea laughed, and I looked up.
"It is a very awkward position, of course; and equally of course you do not quite understand it. I--I meant to tell you and Bessie all about it. I will do so one day. We must be more careful for the future." And again she laughed.
Her laughter nettled me. It ought not to have done so, of course. She could not possibly know how I felt. "If you wish to avoid the Kaiser’s anger, you certainly must be. But I am going off to England by the afternoon mail to-morrow," I declared bluntly.
My reference to the Kaiser stopped her laughter, and she looked very grave for a moment. Then she got up. "I must say good-bye to you then, I suppose."