CHAPTER VII
The Princess appeared for luncheon and declared herself to be in aremarkably good humour.
"My dear Cecil," she said, helping herself to an ortolan in aspic, "Ilike your climate and I like your chef. I had my window open for atleast ten minutes, and the sea air has given me quite an appetite. Ihave serious thoughts of embracing the simple life."
"You could scarcely," Cecil de la Borne answered, "come to a betterplace for your first essay. I will guarantee that life is sufficientlysimple here for any one. I have no neighbours, no society to offer you,no distractions of any sort. Still, I warned you before you came."
"Don't be absurd," the Princess declared. "You have the sea almost atyour front door, and I adore the sea. If you have a nice large boat Ishould like to go for a sail."
Cecil looked at her with upraised eyebrows.
"If you are serious," he said, "no doubt we can find the boat."
"I am absolutely serious," the Princess declared. "I feel that this isexactly what my system required. I should like to sit in a comfortablecushioned seat and sail somewhere. If possible, I should like you mento catch things from the side of the boat."
"You will get sunburnt," Lord Ronald remarked drily; "perhaps evenfreckled."
"Adorable!" the Princess declared. "A touch of sunburn would be quitebecoming. It is such an excellent foundation to build a complexionupon. Jeanne is quite enchanted with the place. She's had adventuresalready, and been rescued from drowning by a marvellous person, whowore his trousers tucked into his boots and found fault with her shoesand stockings. She has promised to show me the place after luncheon,and I am going to stand there myself and see if anything happens."
"You will get your feet very wet," Cecil declared.
"And sand inside your shoes," Forrest remarked.
"These," the Princess declared, "are trifles compared with thedelightful sensation of experiencing a real adventure. In any case wemust sail one afternoon, Cecil. I insist upon it. We will not playbridge until after dinner. My luck last night was abominable. Oh, youneedn't look at me like that," she added to Cecil. "I know I won, butthat was an accident. I had bad cards all the time, and I only wonbecause you others had worse. Please ring the bell, Mr. Host, and seeabout the boat."
"Really," Cecil remarked, as he called the butler and gave him someinstructions, "I had no idea that I was going to entertain suchenterprising guests."
"Oh, there are lots of things I mean to do!" the Princess declared. "Iam seriously thinking of going shrimping. I suppose there are shrimpshere, and I should love to tuck up my skirts and carry a big net, likesomebody's picture."
"Perhaps," Cecil suggested, "you would like to try the golf links. Ibelieve there are some quite decent ones not far away."
The Princess shook her head.
"No!" she answered. "Golf is too civilized a game. We will go out in afishing boat with plenty of cushions, and we will try to catch fish. Iknow that Jeanne will love it, and that you others will hate it.Between the two of you it should be amusing."
"Very well," Cecil declared, with an air of resignation, "whateverhappens will be upon your own shoulders. There is a boat in the villagewhich we can have. I will have it brought up to our own quay in anhour's time. If the worst comes to the worst, and we are bored todeath, we can play bridge on the way."
"There will be no cards upon the boat," the Princess declareddecidedly. "I forbid them. We are going to lounge and look at the seaand get sunburnt. Jeanne can wear a veil if she likes. I shall not."
Cecil shrugged his shoulders.
"Very well," he said. "Whatever happens, don't blame me."
* * * * *
The Princess had her way and behaved like a schoolgirl. She sat in themost comfortable place, surrounded with a multitude of cushions, withher tiny Japanese spaniel in her arms, and a box of French bonbons byher side. Jeanne stood in the bows, bareheaded and happy. Lord Ronald,who was feeling a little sea-sick, sat at her feet.
"I had no idea," he remarked plaintively, "that your mother was capableof such crudities. If I had known, I certainly would not have trustedmyself to such a party. This sea air is hateful. It has tarnished mycigarette-case already, and one's nails will not be fit to be seen. Tobe out of doors like this is worse than drinking unfiltered water."
Jeanne smiled down at him a little contemptuously.
"You are a child of the cities, Lord Ronald," she remarked. "Next yearI am going to buy a yacht myself, but I shall not ask you to come withus."
Lord Ronald groaned.
"That is the worst of all heiresses," he said. "You have such queertastes. I shall never summon up my courage to propose to you."
"There is always leap year," Jeanne reminded him.
"What a bewildering suggestion!" he murmured, looking uncomfortablyover the side of the boat. "I say, Forrest, what do you think of thissort of thing?"
"Idyllic!" Forrest declared cynically. "To sit upon a hard plank and tohave one's digestion unmercifully interfered with like this isunqualified rapture. If only there were cabins one might sleep."
"There will be cabins on my yacht," Jeanne declared laughing, "but Ishall not ask either of you. You are both of you knights of the candlelight. I shall get some great strong fisherman to be captain, and Ishall go round the world and forget the days and the months."
Forrest shivered slightly.
"The country," he remarked to the Princess, "is having a terribleeffect upon your stepdaughter."
The Princess nodded and thrust a bonbon into the languid jaws of thedog she was holding.
"It is my fault," she declared. "It is I who have set this fashion. Itwas a whim, and I am tired of it. Tell our host that we will go back."
They tacked a few minutes later, and swept shoreward. Jeanne, stillstanding in the bows, was gazing steadfastly upon the little island atthe entrance of the estuary.
"I should like," she declared, pointing it out to Cecil, "to land thereand have some tea."
Cecil looked at her doubtfully.
"We shall be home in a little more than an hour," he said, "and I don'tsuppose we could get any tea there, even if we were able to land."
"I have a conviction that we should," Jeanne declared. "Mother," sheadded, turning round to the older woman, "there is an island just aheadof us with a delightful looking cottage. I believe my preserver of thismorning lives there. Wouldn't it be lovely to go and beg him to give usall tea?"
"Charming!" the Princess declared, sitting up amongst her cushions. "Ishould love to see him, and tea is the one thing in the world I want tomake me happy."
Cecil de la Borne stood silent for a moment or two, looking steadfastlyat the whitewashed cottage upon the island. It seemed impossible, afterall, to escape from Andrew!
"The man lives there alone, I believe," he said. "I don't suppose thereis any one to get us tea. He would only be embarrassed by our coming,and not know what to do."
Jeanne smiled reflectively.
"I do not think," she said, "that it would be easy to embarrass Mr.Andrew. However, if you like we will put it off to another afternoon,on one condition."
"Let me hear the condition at any rate," Cecil asked.
"That we go straight back, and that you show us that subterraneanpassage," Jeanne declared.
"Agreed!" Cecil answered. "I warn you that you will find it only dampand mouldy and depressing, but you shall certainly see it."
The girl moved toward the side of the boat, and stood leaning over,with her eyes fixed upon the island. Standing on the small grass plotin front of the cottage she could see the tall figure of a man with hisface turned toward them. A faint smile parted her lips as she watched.She took out her handkerchief and waved it. The man for a moment stoodmotionless, and then raising his cap, held it for a moment above hishead. The boat sped on, and very soon they were out of sight. She stoodthere, however, watching, until they had rounded the sandy spit andentered the creek which led into the harbour. There was somethingunusuall
y piquant to her in the thought of that greeting with the man,whose response to it had been so unwilling, almost ungracious.