But the British Ambassador and the Duchess of Varna were weighing the chances of a Grant being allowed by Parliament for the excavation of Chedorlahomor.
“Dear little Chedor,” the Duchess kept on saying, “I’m sure one would find the most enthralling things there. Aren’t _you_, Sir Somebody?”
And they were still absorbed in their colloquy when the King gave the signal to rise.
Although King William had bidden several distinguished Divas from the Opera House to give an account of themselves for the entertainment of his guests, both King Jotifa and Queen Thleeanouhee with disarming candour declared that, to their ears, the music of the West was hardly to be borne.
“Well I’m not very fond of it either,” her Dreaminess admitted, surrendering her skirts to a couple of rosy boys, and leading the way with airy grace towards an adjacent salon, “although,” she wistfully added across her shoulder, to a high dignitary of the Church, “I’m trying, it’s true, to coax the dear Archbishop to give the first act of _La Tosca_ in the Blue Jesus.... Such a perfect setting, and with Desiré Erlinger and Maggie Mellon...!”
And as the Court now pressed after her the rules of etiquette became considerably relaxed. Mingling freely with his guests, King William had a hand-squeeze and a fleeting word for each.
“In England,” he paused to enquire of Lady Something, who was warning a dowager, with impressive earnestness, against the Ritz, “have you ever seen two cooks in a kitchen-garden?”
“No, never, sir!” Lady Something simpered.
“Neither,” the King replied moving on, “have _we_.”
“My dear,” she told Sir Somebody, a moment afterwards, “my dear, the King was simply charming. Really I may say he was more than gracious! He asked me if I had ever seen two cooks in a kitchen-garden, and I said no, never! And he said that neither, either, had he! And oh isn’t it so strange how few of us ever have?”
But in the salon, one of Queen Thleeanouhee’s ladies had been desired by her Dreaminess to sing.
“It seems so long,” she declared, “since I heard an Eastern voice, and it would be such a relief.”
“By all means,” Queen Thleeanouhee said, “and let a _darbouka_ or two be brought! For what charms the heart more, what touches it more,” she asked, considering meditatively her babouched feet, “than a _darbouka_?”