As for me, I might have a better chance of brazening it out, but remember that I could never afford to be seen in the company of a suspected person." "It was the fear of losing you," he muttered, "which made me so rash." The Princess laughed very softly.
"My dear friend," she said, "I do not believe you.

I may seem to you sometimes very foolish, but at least I understand this.

Life with you is self, self, self, and nothing more.

You have scarcely a generous instinct, scarcely a spark of real affection left in you." "And yet--" he began quietly.
"And yet," she whispered, repulsing him with a little gesture, but with a suddenly altered look in her face, "and yet we women are fools!" She turned round to meet her host, who was crossing the hall, and almost simultaneously the dinner gong rang out.

Their party was perhaps a little more cheerful than it had been on any of the last few evenings.