efore eight, and Mrs. James remarked, while we
were dressing--calling out from her room to mine through the open
door--that there was more credit for Sir S. than for us in liking an
early start. Many men as successful and flattered and rich as he, she
said, would have grown luxurious in their tastes, and lazy. They would
loathe getting up at six, and staying in tiny hotels, and fussing about
to help their chauffeurs when anything went wrong with their cars. They
would hate so much having to pack bags and look after themselves that
they would find it impossible to enjoy travelling without a valet; but
here was this man, used to every luxury, and able to command it, putting
himself to trouble of all sorts and even enduring hardships as
cheerfully as a "little bank clerk out for a holiday with his sister and
aunt."

I agreed with her, and I suppose bank clerks are as interesting a class
as any; but I'm glad Sir S. is not one. And it is more fun being his
princess than his sister. Mrs. James may be his aunt if she likes. I
wouldn't be it for all his millions.

He asked her again if she would like to try the front seat, but she
politely refused, and then, with his rough-coat, turned-up-collar-air,
he invited me to take it. Something deep down in me, like a little live
creature whispering, told me to make him turn down that collar and throw
off that rough coat. It did seem such a _waste_, to have him wearing his
commonplace airs while we travelled through the most adorable country we
had seen yet. I wanted him and me and the scenery all to be romantic
together, and so I told him at last. "But if I'm determined to keep on
the safe side of romance?" he said.

"If you've decided to be dull and disagreeable," I threatened, "I shan't
give you the 'rainbow key' when I find it. I'll hand it over to somebody
else."

"Will you?" he said. "Be sure the somebody else deserves it, then."

This annoyed me. Because I'm looking for the rainbow key for _him_, not
somebody else. "At present I don't happen to know anybody else I'd care
to give it to," I remarked.

"Ay," said he, "there's the rub. You know so few. But it will be
different when the princess has a dozen knights all in the competition."

"Perhaps other knights won't notice that I'm a princess."

"Judging from what I've observed, I think they'll be quick to notice
that."

"Well, it remains to be seen."

"Just so. It remains to be seen." His voice sounded sad or bored, so