they were
leaving. "Frankness is such a refreshing experience for me, that I
must drink of the fount again. Days back, a headstrong young secretary
of mine of considerable nerve and independence and--er--intermittent
disrespect for his chief---having come to grief through a knife of
Themar's intended for another--refused, with a habit of infernal
politeness he has which I find most maddening, refused, mademoiselle,
to execute a certain little commission of mine because he quixotically
fancied it savored of spying!"

"Tregar!" said Philip with an indignant flush. And added with an
uncomfortable conviction of disrespect, "Er--Excellency!"

"I said--intermittent disrespect," reminded Tregar. "Moreover," he
continued, stroking his beard and selecting his words with the
precision of the careful linguist that he was, "this secretary of mine,
after an interview of most disconcerting candor, took to the road and a
hay-cart in a dudgeon, constituting himself, in a characteristic
outburst of suspicion, quixotism, chivalry and protection, a sentinel
to whom lack of sleep, the discomforts of a hay-camp--and--er--spying
black-and-tans were nothing. I have reason for suspecting that he may
have been misrepresented and misjudged--"

"Excellency," said Philip shortly, "my camp lies yonder. And Mrs.
Westfall will doubtless rejoice when her niece's camp is quiet."

Diane met the Baron's glance with a bright flush.

"Excellency," she said, "I thank you."

The two men disappeared among the trees.

CHAPTER XLV

THE GYPSY BLOOD

It was a curious puzzle which, through the quiet of the afternoon that
followed, Diane sought desperately to assemble from the chaos of
highly-colored segments which the morning had supplied. There were
intervals when she rejected the result, with its maddening gaps and
imperfections, with a laugh of utter derision--it was so preposterous!
There were quieter intervals when she pieced the impossible segments
all together again and stared aghast at the result. No matter how
incredulous her attitude, however, when the scattered angles slipped
into unity, riveted together by a painful concentration, the result,
with its consequent light upon the wooing of Ronador, though more and
more startling, was in the main convincing.

Days back in Arcadia Diane remembered the Baron had suavely spoken of
his kingdom, and Philip had told her much. There was a mad king
without issue upon the throne. There