“How can Raven, who has always beaten us in every race, have carried off yet another prize so alluring, so exquisite,” one asked, “without our even being able to compete for it?”
“Are you saying that I am the prize?” Anoushka asked ingenuously.
“Of course, Duchess, although, ‘prize’ is an inadequate word. You are a star glittering out of reach, the moon for which every man yearns, and the sun which Raven has now made exclusively his when you should really shine your radiance for the benefit of all mankind.”
They said a great deal more before they went back to their own table and when they were gone Anoushka said with laughter in her voice,
“You were quite right. I enjoy compliments and I hope I have many, many more.”
“The two gentlemen you have just met are unusually poetic,” the Duke
