looking at me with the same smile, faintly fluttering her eyelids, and putting her head a little on one side.

‘I have seen Monsieur Voldemar before,’ she began. (The silvery note of her voice ran through me with a sort of sweet shiver.) ‘You will let me call you so?’

‘Oh, please,’ I faltered.

‘Where was that?’ asked the princess.

The young princess did not answer her mother.

‘Have you anything to do just now?’ she said, not taking her eyes off me.

‘Oh, no.’

‘Would you like to help me wind some wool? Come in here, to me.’