CHAPTER XXI
The Princess arranged her skirts so that they drooped gracefully, andturned upon her companion with one of those slow mysterious smiles,which many people described but none could imitate.
"Mr. De la Borne," she said, "I can talk to you as I could not talk toyour brother, because you are an older and a wiser man. You may nothave seen much of the world, but you are at any rate not a young idiotlike Cecil. Will you listen to me, please?"
"It seems to me," Andrew answered drily, "that I am already doing so."
"I am not going to ask you," she continued, "whether you are in lovewith my little girl or not, because the whole thing is too ridiculous.I have no doubt that she has some sort of a fancy for you. It isevident that she has. I want you to remember that she is fresh fromschool, that as yet she has not entered life, and that a few months agoshe did not know a man from a gate-post."
"An admirable simile," Andrew murmured.
"What I want you to understand is," the Princess continued, "that asyet she cannot possibly be in a position to make up her mind as to herfuture. She has seen nothing of the world, and what she has seen hasbeen the least favourable side. She has a perfectly enormous fortune,so ridiculously tied up that although I am never out of debt and alwaysborrowing money, I cannot touch a penny of it, not even with her help.Very soon she will be of age, and the amount of her fortune will beknown. I can assure you that it will be a surprise to every one."
Andrew bowed his head indifferently.
"Very possibly," he answered, "and yet, madam, if your daughter has thewisdom to see that the matter of her wealth is after all but a trifleamongst the conditions which make for happiness, why should you denyher the benefits of that wisdom?"
"My dear friend," she continued earnestly, "for this reason--becauseJeanne to-day is too young to choose for herself. She has not got overthat sickly sentimental age, when a girl makes a hero of anythingunusual in the shape of a man, and finds a sort of unwholesomesatisfaction in making sacrifices for his sake. It may be that Jeannemay, after all, look to what you call the simple life for happiness.Well, if she does that after a year or so, well and good. But she shallnot do so with my consent, without indeed my downright opposition,until she has had an opportunity of testing both sides, of weighing thematter thoroughly from every point of view. Do you not agree with me,Mr. De la Borne?"
"You speak reasonably, madam," he assented.
"Jeanne," she continued, "has perhaps charmed you a little. She is,after all, just now a child of nature. She is something of an artist,too. Beautiful places and sights and sounds appeal to her.
"She is ready, with her imperfect experience, to believe that there isnothing greater or better worth cultivating in life. But I want you toconsider the effects of heredity. Jeanne comes from restless, brilliantpeople. Her mother was a leader of society, a pleasure-loving, clever,unscrupulous woman. Her father was a financier and a diplomat,many-sided, versatile, but with as complex a disposition as any man Iever met. Jeanne will ripen as the years go on; something of hermother, something of her father will appear. It is my place, knowingthese things, to see that she does not make a fatal mistake. All that Isay to you, Mr. De la Borne, is to let her go, to give her her chance,to let her see with both eyes before she does anything irremediable. Ithink that I may almost appeal to you, as a reasonable man and agentleman, to help me in this."
Andrew de la Borne looked out through the wizened branches of hisstunted trees, to the white-flecked sea rolling in below. The Princesswas right. He knew that she was right. Those other thoughts were littleshort of madness. Jeanne was no coquette at heart, but she was a child.She had great responsibilities. She was turned into the world with aheavy burden upon her shoulders. It was not he or any man who couldhelp her. She must fight her own battle, win or lose her own happiness.A few years' time might see her the wife of a great statesman or agreat soldier, proud and happy to feel herself the means by which theman she loved might climb one step higher upon the great ladder offame. How like a child's dream these few days upon the marshes, talkingto one who was no more than a looker-on at the great things of life,must seem! He could imagine her thinking of them with a shiver as sheremembered her escape. The Princess was right, she was very rightindeed. He rose to his feet.
"Madam," he said, "I have not pretended to misunderstand you. I thinkthat you have spoken wisely. Your stepdaughter must solve for herselfthe great riddle. It is not for any one of us to handicap her in herchoice while she is yet a child."
"You are going, Mr. De la Borne?" she asked.
He pointed to a brown-sailed fishing-boat passing slowly down from thevillage toward the sea.
"That is one of my boats," he said. "I shall signal to her from theisland to call for me. I need a change, and she is going out into theNorth Sea for five weeks' fishing."
The Princess held out her hand, and Andrew took it in his.
"You are a man," she said. "I wish there were more of your sort in theworld where I live."
The Princess stood for a moment on the edge of the lawn, watchingAndrew's tall figure as he strode across the marsh toward the village.Never once did he look back or hesitate on his swift, vigorous way.Then she sighed a little and turned away toward the house. After all,this was a man, although he was so far removed from the type she knewand understood.
Cecil was walking restlessly up and down the hall when she entered. Hedrew her eagerly into the library.
"Look here," he said, "Forrest declares that he is going. He isupstairs now packing his things."
"Your brother," the Princess answered, "scarcely left him muchalternative."
"That's all very well," Cecil answered, "but if he goes I go. I am notgoing to be left here alone."
The Princess looked at him, and the colour came into his cheeks. It isnever well for a man when he sees such a look upon a woman's face.
"It isn't that I'm afraid," Cecil declared. "I can stand any ordinarydanger, but I am not going to be left shut up here alone, with thewhole responsibility upon me. I couldn't do it. It wouldn't be fair toask me."
"There is no fresh news, I suppose?" the Princess asked.
"None," Cecil answered gloomily. "If only we could see our way to theend of it, I shouldn't mind."
The Princess was thoughtful for a few moments.
"Well," she said, "I don't know, after all, if Forrest need go justyet. Your brother has made up his mind to go fishing for several weeks.I think that he is going to start to-day."
"Do you mean it?" Cecil exclaimed, incredulously.
The Princess nodded.
"He has been philandering with Jeanne," she said, "and his magnificentconscience is taking him out into the North Sea."
Cecil's features relaxed. After all, though he played at maturity, hewas little more than a boy.
"Fancy old Andrew!" he exclaimed. "Gone on a child like Miss Jeanne,too! Well, anyhow, that makes it all right about Forrest staying,doesn't it?"
"He shall stop," the Princess answered slowly. "Jeanne and I will stay,too, until Monday. Perhaps by that time--"
"By that time," Cecil repeated, "something may have happened."