is just over the entrance to the courtyard."

"It is a proof," Major Forrest remarked, "that you sleep as soundly as
you deserve."

"I am not so sure about that," Jeanne said. "Last night, for instance,
it seemed to me that I heard all manner of strange sounds."

Cecil de la Borne looked up quickly.

"Sounds?" he repeated. "Do you mean noises in the house?"

She nodded.

"Yes, and voices! Once I thought that you must be all quarrelling, and
then I thought that I heard some one fall down. After that there was
nothing but the opening and shutting of doors."

"And after that," the Princess remarked smiling, "you probably went to
sleep."

"Exactly," Jeanne admitted. "I went to sleep listening for footsteps. I
think it was very rude of Ronald to go away without saying good-bye to
me."

"You would have thought it still ruder," Cecil remarked, "if he had had
you roused at five o'clock or so to make his adieux."

The Princess and Jeanne left the table together a few minutes before
the other two, and Jeanne asked her stepmother a question.

"How long are we going to stop here?" she inquired. "I thought that our
visit was for two or three days only."

The Princess hesitated.

"Cecil is such a nice boy," she said, "and he is so anxious to have us
stay a little longer. What do you say? You are not bored?"

"I am not bored," Jeanne answered, "so long as you can keep him from
saying silly things to me. On the contrary, I like to be here. I like
it better than London. I like it better than any place I have been in
since I left school."

The Princess looked at her a little curiously.

"I wonder," she said, "whether I ought to be looking after you a little
more closely, my child. What do you do on the marshes there all the
time? Do you talk with this Mr. Andrew?"

"I went with him in his boat this morning," Jeanne answered composedly.
"It was very pleasant. We had a delightful sail."

The Princess shrugged her shoulders.

"Well," she said, "one must amuse oneself, and I suppose it is only
reasonable that we should all choose different ways. I think I need not
tell even such a child as you that men are the same all the world over,
and that even a fisherman, if he is encouraged, may be guilty sometimes
of an impertinence."

Jeanne raised her eyebrows.

"I have not the slightest fear," she said, "that Mr. Andrew would ever
be guilty of anything of the sort. I wish I could say the same of some
of the people whom