CHAPTER SEVENFor a moment they could only stand staring at each other.
Then as it seemed to Tora as if a thousand fireworks flew up into the sky, she heard her father say to her mother,
“I must explain, my dear, that His Majesty the King is unfortunately indisposed and he has sent us in his place his son Prince Vulkan.”
It was then as if Mikloš came back to life that he managed to say in a voice that did not sound like his own,
“It is a great pleasure – to be here!”
Then the Grand Duke had taken him away to present the other guests to him.
Tora watched them feeling as if the whole world had turned upside-down and she was not certain whether she was asleep and dreaming or the miracle she had prayed for had occurred.
When they went into luncheon, she was not sitting beside Mikloš, but
