Explore "The Jingo" by George Randolph Chester on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The Princess Bezzanna, meekly obedient without but a tornado of disobedience within, dressed herself very carefully for dinner that evening, because the prince and his mother were to be their guests at the informal family betrothal ceremony, preceding the grand affair of state that was to take place within two weeks. She was in a particularly rebellious frame of mind because she had not seen Jimmy since the early morning, when, after five stolen delicious minutes in her sitting-room, he had hurried away to the mines, to be gone until late at night. The king had, with smiling courtesy, invited him to be back in time for dinner, but Jimmy had pointed out to him the impossibility of it, and while Bezzanna had appreciated his delicacy in the matter, she was angry with him for being gone.
The prince and his mother had been in the palace fully twenty minutes before Bezzanna came down to receive them, and when she swept into the red drawing-room, the prince gave an involuntary gasp of admiration, for he had never seen her so dazzlingly beautiful as in this rich black lace robe, her entire costume relieved by a single ornament, a little shield of rubies and diamonds and sapphires, which she wore as a brooch. Never had he seen her cheeks aflame with such an exquisite play of fleeting color, nor her eyes so sparkling with vivacity, nor her perfectly-formed head poised so superbly on her graceful neck.