"If you wish," said I, barring the path and sweeping the ground with my
feather, "I'll hunt another rose. I've been searching for you so long
that the one I began with has gone to pieces."
"Of course, Your Highness would never think of looking in the Ball
Room," said Lady Helen.
Mademoiselle d'Essolde started and, then, drew a bit back.
"Never, indeed, until I had searched the Garden," I retorted. Then I
bowed to Mademoiselle d'Essolde as the Marquise presented her. I could
see she was very much embarrassed, so I tried to reassure her by being
extremely cordial.
The Marquise wanted to show Courtney the bridge and the lake, and, when
we passed the place where Moore and I had met the Queens--as I had
styled them--Mademoiselle d'Essolde found her opportunity and whispered:
"Will Your Royal Highness ever forgive me?"
"On one condition," I said.
"It's granted--name it."
"That you be nice to him who sits beside you at supper, to-night."
She looked at me a moment--masks are very annoying when one wants to
see the face.
"That will be an easy penance," she said--and I understood she had been
told who that man was to be.
I bent toward her. "Let him know it, then," I said earnestly.
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