"But what am I to call you? I mustn't call you Blue Eyes any more, because we are now grave and staid; and Adrian is too familiar. I should poniard you if you were to call me Ana."
"There was another name exchanged between us once," I said--"one alluded to in your letter received by me to-day."
"Ah!" she said, with a little shriek, "don't recall that. How dare you! I only wrote it to bring myself back to your memory."
"Oh!" I said, "did you? Well, now, what did your high--I mean you, Damaris--send for me for at all, if it was only to be so haughty and distant? There are no more burning houses to save you from; and as for--for--old Alberoni----"
"Monseigneur the Cardinal Alberoni, if you please."
"As for Monseigneur the Cardinal Alberoni--well! what has become of him? He has finished his sch--politics--I suppose?"
"He lives the life of a saint at Piacenza. But--but I did not send for you to talk about his Eminence."
"What then, Da--I mean--well!--you understand?"
"You remember," she said, "that you did save my life once? Of course you do; you have but just referred to it."
"Is it in danger now? And am I to save it again?"
"My happiness is. I want you to save me from a man--a man who, though perhaps it may surprise you, wants to marry me."
"Ah! bah!" I said, forgetting my manners and jumping out of my chair, and beginning to walk about the room. "Bah! A man wants to marry you, indeed!" and I felt quite angry at the very idea of such a thing.
"It is strange that he should desire to do so, is it not?" she said, with a queer little, but very pretty, grimace. "All the same, it's the truth. It is indeed, Blue--I mean, my lord."
"Oh!" she said, with another of her little shrieks. "The fellow! Why--er--Lord Trent--he is one of the scions of our royal house--of Austria and Spain."
"Shall I run him through? I will if he wants to marry you--and--and--you bid me do so."
"You might have to run more than one through, at that rate, Blue Eyes," and this time she forgot to correct herself, which, if I remember rightly, seemed to please me; "I think you might, indeed. But, no! I imagine you can do better than that."
"Will you, my lord?" ("Vengeance confound that title!" thought I.) "I wonder if you will?"