“Will you?” said he.
She gave the very faintest shrug of one shoulder and without a word rose to her feet.
At the same time Mademoiselle Ernestine, saying she had affairs to attend to, left them.
It was a new and thrilling experience for Charley to dance with a girl with nothing on above the waist.
It made him rather breathless to put his hand on her naked body and to feel her bare breasts against him.
The hand which he held in his was small and soft.
But he was a well-brought-up young man, with good manners, and feeling it was only decent to make polite conversation, talked in the same way as he would have to any girl at a dance in London whom he did not know.
She answered civilly enough, but he had a notion that she was not giving much heed to what he said.
Her eyes wandered vaguely about the room, but there was no indication that they found there anything to excite her interest.
When he clasped her a little more closely to him she accepted the more intimate hold without any sign that she noticed it.
She acquiesced.
The band stopped playing and they returned to their table.
Simon was sitting there alone.
“Well, does she dance well?” he asked.
“Not very.”
Suddenly she laughed.
It was the first sign of animation she had given and her laugh was frank and gay.
“I’m sorry,” she said, speaking English,
“I wasn’t attending.
I can dance better than that and next time I will.”
Charley flushed.
“I didn’t know you spoke English.
I wouldn’t have said that.”
“But it was quite true.
And you dance so well, you deserve a partner who can dance too.”
Hitherto they had spoken French.
Charley’s was not very accurate, but it was fluent enough, and his accent was good.
She spoke it very well, but with the sing-song Russian intonation which gives the language an alien monotony.
Her English was not bad.
“The Princess was educated in England,” said Simon.
“I went there when I was two and stayed till I was fourteen.
I haven’t spoken it much since then and I’ve forgotten.”
“Where did you live?”
“In London.
In Ladbroke Grove.
In Charlotte Street.
Wherever it was cheap.”
“I’m going to leave you young things now,” said Simon.
“I’ll see you to-morrow, Charley.”
“Aren’t you going to the Mass?”
“No.”
He left them with a casual nod.
“Have you known Monsieur Simon long?” asked the Princess.
“He’s my oldest friend.”
“Do you like him?”
“Of course.”
“He’s very different from you.
I should have thought he was the last person you would have taken to.”
“He’s brilliantly clever.
He’s been a very good friend to me.”