me of you?"

"Nothing," Jeanne answered, "only you asked me a question, and I felt
an irresistible desire to answer you truthfully. It would have come
sooner or later."

Andrew turned slowly toward the girl, who stood looking at her
stepmother with flushed cheeks and quivering lips.

"Miss Le Mesurier," he said, "on one condition I will sell you the
island, but on only one."

"And that is?" she asked.

The Princess recovered herself just in time, and sailed in between them.

"Mr. De la Borne," she said, "my daughter is too young for such
conversations. For two years she is under my complete guidance. She
must obey me just as though she were ten years older and married, and I
her husband. The law has given me absolute control over her. You
understand that yourself, don't you, Jeanne?"

"Yes," Jeanne answered quietly, "I understand."

"Go indoors, please," the Princess said. "I have something to say to
Mr. De la Borne."

"And I, too," Jeanne said. "Let me stay and say it. I will not be five
minutes."

The Princess pointed toward the door.

"I will not have it," she said coldly. "Cecil, take my daughter
indoors. I insist upon it."

She turned away unwillingly. The Princess took Andrew by the arm and
led him to a more distant seat.

"Now, if you please, my dear Mr. Andrew," she said, "will you tell me
what it is that you have done to my foolish little girl?"

CHAPTER XXI

The Princess arranged her skirts so that they drooped gracefully, and
turned 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 to
your brother, because you are an older and a wiser man. You may not
have seen much of the world, but you are at any rate not a young idiot
like 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 love
with 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 is
evident that she has. I want you to remember that she is fresh from
school, that as yet she has not entered life, and that a few months ago
she 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 as
yet she cannot possib