"You must be very tired, Lady Tarkington," a pleasant voice said close to her elbow.
"Not tired," Rosemary replied, "but rather dazed. The journey over from England is slower and much more fatiguing than it used to be."
Captain and Mrs. Payson were sitting beside her at the table. Recently attached to the British Military Mission in Hungary, Captain Payson and his young wife lived at the "Hungaria." It had been a great pleasure for them to see Rosemary again, whom they had known for several years, and after supper they had all foregathered on the terrace over their coffee. Some few minutes before this Jasper had elected to take a turn on the Corso, to stretch his legs and to smoke a cigar, but Rosemary felt too lazy to move, and she liked to talk to the Paysons, who were genial and intellectual and with whom she had a great deal in common in the way of associations and friends.
"The place has not altered much," Rosemary went on after a while. "The people here are always gay and cheerful--in spite of--of everything."
"Yes," little Mrs. Payson assented lightly. "Give them their music, their delicious wines and perfect cooking, and nine out of ten Hungarians won't care if they are ruled by King or Emperor, by foreign tyrant or Bolshevist ruffian."
"I always think Ruth is wrong when she says that," Captain Payson put in earnestly. "The Hungarians are sportsmen, as we are, and they are taking their punishment like sportsmen. They are not going to let the world see how much they suffer. In that way they are very different from the Germans."
"They behaved with unparalleled folly," Rosemary remarked.
"Yes," the captain retorted, "and with commendable loyalty. The Hungarians are a nation of gentlemen, just as the British. They, like ourselves, are worshippers of tradition. They are royalists in their hearts, almost to a man. Just think what their feelings must be whenever they look across the river and gaze on that gorgeous palace over there, whence their anointed King has been driven by petty foreign politicians who scarcely knew where Hungary was situated on the map."
Before Rosemary could pursue the subject she caught sight of her husband forging his way towards her between the crowded tables of the terrace.