The Duchess of Hexham, alarmed lest her most brilliant star should be eclipsed, came to the rescue.

Lady Amelie was soon surrounded, and then was carried off by the archduke.
Not, however, before she had managed to turn round to Basil and say to him, sotto voce, "You must call and see me.

We shall be friends, I can foretell." And he was more charmed than ever by those words.

Friends with that enchanting woman, that proud, peerless queen, that radiant beauty! Be friends with her! It was more than he had dared to venture to hope.

That he might worship her in the distance seemed to him honor enough.
He had dreamed of such women, but he had not thought they existed; they belonged to the heroic ages, past now and dead.