"Come, Colonel Bernheim," I said, "I am at your service. Shall we use
the masks?"
"For Your Highness's sake, yes," he answered. "I'm apt to be a trifle
wild at times."
There was nothing especially graceful about my senior Aide; and,
besides being past the prime of life, he was of a rather bulky
tallness, stolid and phlegmatic. I could readily imagine his style,
and a very few passes confirmed it. He was of the ordinary type and I
could have run him through without the least effort. As it was, I
touched him, presently, once on each arm--then disengaged and saluted.
"I thank Your Highness," he said; "it could just as well have been my
heart and throat a dozen times."
"I am younger and more active," I explained.
But he smiled it down. "I am not sensitive, sir. Besides, it gives me
joy."