The Ambassador glanced at the clock as he entered his library to greet his early morning visitor.

It was barely nine o'clock.
"Dear friend," he exclaimed, as he held out his hands, "I am distressed to keep you waiting! Such zeal in our affairs must, however, not remain unnoticed.

I will remember it in my reports." Anna smiled as he stooped to kiss her fingers.
"I had special reasons," she explained, "for my haste.

I was disappointed, indeed, that I could not see you last night." "I was at Windsor," her host remarked.

"Now come, sit there in the easy-chair by the side of my table.