And he thought it would be very exciting to be the first man to do so.
Then he knew that she had been so frightened by the Comte that, if he touched her, it would upset her all the more.
She might disappear in a puff of smoke and he would never see her again.
This would be a penalty that he had no wish to suffer.
He knew, as the horses came to a standstill, that he had enjoyed the evening greatly.
Not for a moment had he been bored while they were driving or dining.
It was only now did he realise that he had not given a single thought to the Princess or to the darkness of the future ahead.
“Youth has an allurement all of its own,” he had heard an old man say once.
He knew that what Vilma had shown him was the ‘allure of youth’.
It had been as exciting and pure as the beauty of the
