d he have called on my father? To hear the worst
at once? That seemed likely, supposing him to have lost his peculiar
confidence in the princess, of which the courtly paces he had put me
through precluded me from judging.

But I guessed acutely that it was not his intention to permit of my
meeting Ottilia a second time. The blow was hard: I felt it as if it had
been struck already, and thought I had gained resignation, until, like a
man reprieved on his road to execution, the narrowed circle of my heart
opened out to the breadth of the world in a minute. Returning from the
city, I hurried to my father's house, late in the afternoon, and heard
that he had started to overtake the prince, leaving word that the prince
was to be found at his address in the island. No doubt could exist
regarding the course I was bound to take. I drove to my grandfather,
stated my case to him, and by sheer vehemence took the wind out of his
sails; so that when I said, 'I am the only one alive who can control
my father,' he answered mildly, 'Seems t' other way,' and chose a small
snort for the indulgence of his private opinion.

'What! this princess came over alone, and is down driving out with my
girl under an alias?' he said, showing sour aversion at the prospect of
a collision with the foreign species, as expressive as the ridge of a
cat's back.

Temple came to dine with us, so I did not leave him quite to himself,
and Temple promised to accompany him down to the island.

'Oh, go, if you like,' the fretted old man dismissed me:

'I've got enough to think over. Hold him fast to stand up to me within
forty-eight hours, present time; you know who I mean; I've got
a question or two for him. How he treats his foreign princes
and princesses don't concern me. I'd say, like the
Prevention-Cruelty-Animal's man to the keeper of the menagerie, "Lecture
'em, wound their dignity, hurt their feelings, only don't wop 'em."
I don't wish any harm to them, but what the deuce they do here nosing
after my grandson!... There, go; we shall be having it out ha' done with
to-morrow or next day. I've run the badger to earth, else I'm not fit to
follow a scent.'

He grumbled at having to consume other than his Riversley bread, butter,
beef, and ale for probably another fortnight. One of the boasts of
Riversley was, that while the rest of the world ate and drank poison,
the Grange lived on its own solid substance, defying malefactory Radical
tricksters.

Temp