Instead, the Lord Seneschal's meekness left him breathless with surprise.
"He is my secretary, madame.

We were at work as you came.

I was on the point of inditing a letter to Her Majesty.

The office of Seneschal in a province such as Dauphiny is helas!--no sinecure." He sighed like one whose brain is weary.

"It leaves a man little time even to eat or sleep." "You will be needing a holiday, then," said she, with cool insolence.
"Take one for once, and let the King's business give place for half an hour to mine." The secretary's horror grew by leaps and bounds.
Surely the storm would burst at last about this audacious woman's head.
But the Lord Seneschal--usually so fiery and tempestuous--did no more than make her another of his absurd bows.
"You anticipate, madame, the very words I was about to utter.