"Did you," we asked, "see any ice during your passage
across?"
"Ah," said the Prince, "ice! Let me think."
We did so.
"Ice," repeated the Prince thoughtfully.
We realized that we were in the presence not only of a
soldier, a linguist and a diplomat, but of a trained
scientist accustomed to exact research.
"Ice!" repeated the Prince. "Did I see any ice? No."
Nothing could have been more decisive, more final than
the clear, simple brevity of the Prince's "No." He had
seen no ice. He knew he had seen no ice. He said he had
seen no ice. Nothing could have been more straightforward,
more direct. We felt assured from that moment that the
Prince had not seen any ice.
The exquisite good taste with which the Prince had answered
our question served to put us entirely at our ease, and
we presently found ourselves chatting with His Highness
with the greatest freedom and without the slightest _gene_
or _mauvaise honte_, or, in fact, _malvoisie_ of any kind.
We realized, indeed, that we were in the presence not
only of a trained soldier, a linguist and a diplomat,
but also of a conversationalist of the highest order.
His Highness, who has an exquisite sense of humour--indeed,
it broke out again and again during our talk with him
--expressed himself as both amused and perplexed over
our American money.
Pages:
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106