"If I were to command, would you obey?"

"Perhaps, just for the curiosity of the thing," she rejoined, laughing.

"Naughty girl, to mock at her father!" said he. "If these twenty years
I have been in servitude, I can scarcely emancipate myself in a day.
However, since the great king deigns to hold parley with his ministers,
I am Pomponne--let us argue."

"Ah, well! you know as well as I that I have a real friendship for
Camille, as the playmate of my childhood. I remember him when he was
ever so small, and he remembers me, too, when I was a tiny creature.
We played hide-and-seek together, and he humoured me in my ten thousand
little caprices. Delightful reminiscences these, but unfortunately I
think of them too much when I see him."

"He has passed two years among the Magyars; two years is a good while."

"Bah! he could never possibly have any authority over me. I intend that
my husband shall be my government."

"So that you may have the pleasure of governing your government?"

"Besides, I know Camille too well. I could only fall in love with a
stranger," said she, heedless of the last sally.

"Was not the Viscount R--- a stranger?"

"At the end of five minutes I knew him by heart. He is precisely like