"
She kept silence a while. She laughed uneasily. "I so often wonder about
you, Manuel, as to whether inside the big, high-colored, squinting,
solemn husk is living a very wise person or a very unmitigated fool."
"I perceive there is something else which we have in common, for I, too,
often wonder about that."
"It is settled, then?"
"It is settled that, instead of ruling little Arles, you are to be Queen
of England, and Lady of Ireland, and Duchess of Normandy and Aquitaine,
and Countess of Anjou; that our token is to be a goose-feather; and
that, I diffidently repeat, you are to get out of my light and interfere
no longer with the discharge of my geas."
"And what will you do?"
"I must, as always, follow after my own thinking--"
"If you complete the sentence I shall undoubtedly scream."
Manuel laughed good-humoredly. "I suppose I do say it rather often, but
then it is true, and the great trouble between us, Alianora, is that you
do not perceive its truth."
She said, "And I suppose you will now be stalking off to some woman or
another for consolation?"
"No, the consolation I desire is not to be found in petticoats.
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