"Recently?"
"About six years ago."
"Is that the last time?"
"What are you driving at?" I asked.
He answered with another question: "Seen the last number of the London
Illustrated News?"
"No," I answered.
He struck the bell. "Bring me the London News," he said to the boy.
Opening it at the frontispiece he pushed it across to me.
"Has she changed much since you saw her?" he asked, and smiled.
It was a woman's face that looked at me from the page; and, though it
was six years since I had seen it last, I recognized it instantly.
There was, however, a certain coldness in the eyes and a firm set of
the lip and jaw that were new to me. But, as I looked, they seemed to
soften, and I could have sworn that for an instant the Princess Dehra
of Valeria smiled at me most sweetly--even as once she herself had done.
"You seem uncommonly well pleased with the lady," Courtney observed.