"That is a genteel reply," said the Lady Shaunica. "In sheer truth, I wonder why a person such as yourself sits aloof in the shadows. Have you been dazed by tragic news? Are you disdainful of all others at Quanorq, and their pitiful attempts to put forward an appealing image?"

Rhialto smiled his own wry half-smile. "I have suffered no tragic shocks. As for the appealing image of the Lady Shaunica, it is enhanced by a luminous intelligence of equal charm."

"Then you have arranged a rendezvous of your own?"

"None whatever."

"Still, you sit alone and speak to no one."

"My motives are complex. What of yours? You sit here in the shadows as well."

The Lady Shaunica laughed. "I ride like a feather on wafts of caprice. Perhaps I am piqued by your restraint, or distance, or indifference, or whatever it may be. Every other gallant has dropped upon me like a vulture on a corpse." She turned him a sidelong glance. "Your conduct therefore becomes provocative, and now you have the truth."

Rhialto was silent a moment, then said: "There are many exchanges to be made between us—if our acquaintance is to persist."

The Lady Shaunica made a flippant gesture. "I have no strong objections."

Rhialto looked across the foyer. "I might then suggest that we discover a place where we can converse with greater privacy. We sit here like birds on a fence."

"A solution is at hand," said the Lady Shaunica. "The duke has allowed me a suite of apartments for the duration of my visit. I will order in a collation and a bottle or two of Maynesse, and we will continue our talk in dignity and seclusion."

"The proposal is flawless," said Rhialto. He rose and, taking the Lady Shaunica's hands, drew her to her feet. "Do I still seem as if dazed by tragic news?"

"No, but let me ask you this: why are you known as 'Rhialto the Marvellous'?"

"It seems to be an old joke," said Rhialto. "I have never been able to trace the source."

As the two walked arm in arm along the main gallery they passed Ildefonse and Byzant standing disconsolately under a marble statue. Rhialto accorded them a polite nod, and made a secret sign of more complicated significance, to the effect that they might feel free to return home without him.

The Lady Shaunica, pressing close to his side, giggled. "What a pair of unlikely comrades! The first a roisterer with mustaches a foot long, the second a poet with the eyes of a sick lizard. Do you know them?"

"Only slightly. In any case it is you who interests me and all your warm sensitivities which to my delight you are allowing me to share."

The Lady Shaunica pressed even more closely against him. "I begin to suspect the source of your soubriquet."

Ildefonse and Byzant, biting their lips in vexation, returned to the foyer, where Ildefonse finally made the acquaintance of a portly matron wearing a lace cap and smelling strongly of musk. She took IIdefense off to the ball-room, where they danced three galops, a triple-polka and a kind of a strutting cake-walk where Ildefonse, in order to dance correctly, was obliged to raise one leg high in the air, jerk his elbows, throw back his head, then repeat the evolution with all briskness, using the other leg.