atter? Was it not as easy to get
rid of a woman as a man? Was not the fatal beauty of the Horus Stone at
his command now that he was its possessor for good or evil? A
well-arranged suicide might easily be taken by the world as the
excusable, if deplorable, result of her mysterious bereavement.

The conversation during dinner naturally turned on ways and means of
travelling, and, when the Professor had sketched out their plans,
Oscarovitch said with an admirably simulated deference:

"My dear sir, I most sincerely hope that you and Miss Marmion will not
think that I am presuming on an acquaintance which, if only a new one
now, may perhaps one day be older, if I venture to suggest another way
of making your tour. I am an old voyager in these waters, and I can
assure you that the steamers, though vastly improved, have not quite
reached the standard of the Atlantic liner."

"Oh, but you know, Prince, we didn't expect it," interrupted Nitocris.
"Neither my father nor I have the slightest objection to roughing it a
little. In fact, that is half the fun of wandering."

"And slow travelling between stated points, not always of the greatest
or any interest, together with the enforced company of a promiscuous
crowd of tourists and commercial travellers, who, by the way, are mostly
German, and therefore of nature and necessity disagreeable, would about
make up the other half," said Oscarovitch, leaning back in his chair
with a low laugh. "No, no, my dear Miss Marmion, I am afraid you would
not find that the reality quite squared with the anticipation. Now, may
I risk the suspicion of presumption and offer an alternative
proposition?"

"Why not?" said Nitocris with a smile, and a glance which dazzled him.
"I'm sure it is very kind of you to take so much interest in our poor
little attempt to get away for a while from the madding crowd who are
doing the round of the same stale, weary pleasures that they try so hard
to enjoy year after year, and then come back _so_ tired, after all."

"Then," he replied, looking at them alternately, "as I have your
permission, I would suggest that, instead of rushing from fixed point to
fixed point in crowded steamers and the shackles of Company or
Government regulations, you should take possession of a fairly
comfortable steam yacht of a little over a thousand tons which will be
entirely at your disposal, and will run you from anywhere to anywhere
you choose at any speed you like, from five to