She did not wait an answer, but bent nearer, with an infinite pity and anxiety in her pretty eyes.
"I want to know--you are so vexed; are you not?
They say you have lost all your money!" "Do they?
They are not far wrong then.

Who are 'they,' Petite Reine ?" "Oh! Prince Alexis, and the Duc de Lorance, and mamma, and everybody.

Is it true ?" "Very true, my little lady." "Ah!" She gave a long sigh, looking pathetically at him, with her head on one side, and her lips parted; "I heard the Russian gentleman saying that you were ruined.

Is that true, too ?" "Yes, dear," he answered wearily, thinking little of the child in the desperate pass to which his life had come.
Petite Reine stood by him silent; her proud, imperial young ladyship had a very tender heart, and she was very sorry; she had understood what had been said before her of him vaguely indeed, and with no sense of its true meaning, yet still with the quick perception of a brilliant and petted child.

Looking at her, he saw with astonishment that her eyes were filled with tears.