o one
about, but I do not trust your memory. I admire too much the artist in
you for that. Ah! Do I hear someone scratching apologetically upon the
window? [_smiling_] Really, no wonder your sense of privacy is
outraged tonight.

DUCHESS

Who now?

PRINCE [_in a slightly frantic voice_]

I, Josephine. Did anyone pass in by this window a few minutes ago?

DUCHESS

[_Looking at the QUEEN, whose ironic countenance struggles with
real emotion._]

Who should? You perceive the curtains are drawn.

PRINCE

A girl--one of the troupe of mountebanks--a blind girl. Phedro brought
her in with a most important letter for the Queen. He left her a
moment, returned, and she was gone. He hesitated to disturb you at
this late hour; so I told him I would come myself and ask.

QUEEN [_suddenly speaking in a tone of relief_]

Ah, with a note for me. Is it only that? For Heaven's sake, don't go
on talking through a closed window, Charles. It gives such an air of
tension to everything. Josephine, open the window to Charles.

[_Josephine obeys._]

PRINCE

[_Stepping into the room so befogged with his own agitation as
to have no room left for astonishment at the presence of the
QUEEN._]

Josephine, your Majesty, are you quite sure----

DUCHESS

My dear Charles, do you think I am in the habit of not noticing the
intrusion of perfectly strange women into my apartment at night?

PRINCE

Then you saw no one?

[_DUCHESS smiles enigmatically._]

QUEEN [_addressing the PRINCE_]

Why are you so anxious that this message from the blind girl is
delayed? Or are you just naturally upset about everything tonight,
being so near the altar?

DUCHESS

Ah, yes, so near the altar. Tell me how have you spent these last free
hours, Charles?

QUEEN

I hope you have spent them romantically, fingering a lute or
something.

DUCHESS

Fingering something--was it a lute, Charles?

[_CHARLES glances at the DUCHESS in alarm. The QUEEN intercepts
the look and grows a little uneasy herself._]

QUEEN

You seem to be throwing dirt at one another out of a bonbonniere. I
have a feeling I should extremely dislike to hear you actually explain
yourselves. I wonder where Phedro is. He has hinted to me of
extraordinary news for tonight. [_she opens the window and looks out_]
And now it is almost dawn.

[_She calls PHEDRO, and opens the door through which she has
entered the room, c