Margaret's eyes were open. She closed them and said: "Yes, mother, what
is it?"
Through the door came light from the hall. Mrs. Austen looked about.
Nearby was a chair on which was one of those garments, made of
franfreluches, which the French call a Jump-from-bed. Removing it, she
sat down.
"It is too bad. I know you don't feel like discussing affairs of State,
but it is Luxemburg all over again. If I were alone concerned, I am sure
I would capitulate. But where the State is concerned, and by that I mean
you, I am like the little grand-duchess--pretty child, from her
pictures, didn't you think?--and I must resist the invader. It is true,
I don't know exactly what the grand-duchess did do, though they said she
sat in a motor on a bridge and flourished a revolver. But you never can
tell. I daresay she and her maids of honour hid in a cellar. Perhaps we
may have to."