ps.

The Princess went back to the library. Coffee and liqueurs had already
been served, and the card-table was set out, although none of the three
had the slightest inclination to play. Jeanne walked along the beach
and then came back to her favourite seat, sheltered by the little grove
of stunted trees and the tall hollyhocks which bordered the garden. Her
eyes were fixed upon the darkening sea, whitened here and there by the
long straight line of breakers. The marshes on her right hand were hung
with grey mists, floating about like weird phantoms, and here and there
between them shone the distant lights of the village. She half closed
her eyes. The soft falling of the waves upon the sand below, and the
murmur of the wind through the bushes and scanty trees was like a
lullaby. She sat there she scarcely knew how long. She woke up with a
start, conscious that two men were standing talking together within a
few yards of her in the rough lane that led down to the sea.

CHAPTER XIV

The Princess was attempting a new and very complicated form of
patience. Forrest was watching her. Their host was making an attempt to
read the newspaper.

"In five minutes," the Princess declared, "I shall have achieved the
impossible. This time I am quite sure that I am going to do it."

A breathless silence followed her announcement. The Princess, looking
up in surprise, found that the eyes of her two companions were fixed
not upon her but upon the door. She laid down her cards and turned her
head. It was Jeanne who stood there, her hair tossed and blown by the
wind, her face ashen white.

"What is the matter, child?" the Princess demanded.

Jeanne came a little way into the room.

"There were two men," she faltered, "talking in the shrubbery close to
where I was sitting behind the hollyhocks. I could not understand all
that they said, but they are coming here. They were speaking of Lord
Ronald."

"Go on," Forrest muttered, leaning forward with dilated eyes.

"They spoke as though something might have happened to him here," the
girl whispered. "Oh! it is too horrible, this! What do you think that
they meant?"

She looked at the three people who confronted her. There was nothing
reassuring in the faces of the two men. The Princess leaned back in her
chair and laughed.

"My dear child," she said, "you have been asleep and dreamed these
foolish things; or if not, these yokels to whom you have been listening
are mad. Wha