Edgar Jepson

“ Her uncle had once said:
“It was really rather a relief to have Richard present. He's the only man I ever came across who can look as bored as I feel.”
A quarter of an hour later, the Harwich express arrived, and she turned her attention with eager relief to the Princess Frieda. She was at once surprised by the calm of the Scandinavian royal party. She had met at different stations half a dozen princesses during the last two years. Every one of them had arrived bashful and flurried about nothing at all, amid flustered and fussy attendants. ”

“ The Princess Anne did not look at all glad.
“I don't think he'll fall in love with the Princess Frieda,” she said thoughtfully. “Her face is scarred.”
“How often must I tell you that beauty is only skin deep?” said her mother. “What's a scarred face?”
“Richard is so frightfully particular. I've noticed it more than once.”
A footman opened the door and announced Prince Richard. John Stuart entered.
“I was just telling Anne for the hundredth time that beauty is only skin deep,” said the stern aunt of the prince impatiently. ”

“ It was like him to be uninterested by the fact that he was about to meet the lady whose heart had been decided by the diplomats of England and Scandinavia to be his, but it was not like him to be so dully uninterested in it. She had expected him to wear the air of very weary boredom with which he awaited the conclusion of any royal function he was attending. ”