"My brother is back, I hear. He made an excursion, didn't he?"

"Yes, he is here," she said, frowning a little.

"He can't stay long from Strelsau, it seems," I observed, smiling.
"Well, we are all glad to see him. The nearer he is, the better."

The princess glanced at me with a gleam of amusement in her eyes.

"Why, cousin? Is it that you can--?"

"See better what he's doing? Perhaps," said I. "And why are you glad?"

"I didn't say I was glad," she answered.

"Some people say so for you."

"There are many insolent people," she said, with delightful haughtiness.

"Possibly you mean that I am one?"

"Your Majesty could not be," she said, curtseying in feigned deference,
but adding, mischievously, after a pause: "Unless, that is--"

"Well, unless what?"

"Unless you tell me that I mind a snap of my fingers where the Duke of
Strelsau is."

Really, I wished that I had been the King.