"It amuses you, doesn't it?"--he said, addressing me with a little
cynical smile wrinkling up his forehead and eyes--"Anything that
cannot be at once explained is always interesting and delightful to
a woman! That is why spiritualistic 'mediums' make money. They do
clever tricks which cannot be explained, hence their success with
the credulous."

"Quite so"--I replied--"but just allow me to say that I am no
believer in 'mediums.'"

"True,--I forgot!" He rubbed his hand wearily over his brows--then
asked--"Did you sleep well?"

"Splendidly! And I must really thank you for my lovely rooms,--they
are almost too luxurious! They are fit for a princess."

"Why a princess?" he queried, ironically--"Princesses are not always
agreeable personages. I know one or two,--fat, ugly and stupid. Some
of them are dirty in their persons and in their habits. There are
certain 'princesses' in Europe who ought to be washed and
disinfected before being given any rooms anywhere!"

I laughed.

"Oh, you are very bitter!" I said.

"Not at all. I like accuracy. 'Princess' to the ingenuous mind
suggests a fairy tale. I have not an ingenuous mind. I know that the
princesses of the fairy tales do not exist,--unless you are one."