ing person with protuberant eyeballs, thin lashes, and
supercilious mouth.

"I trust that the day's entertainment will include something more than a
glimpse of Lady Angela," he said, with a low bow.

She raised her eyes. It seemed to me, who was watching her closely,
that she shrank a little back in her seat. I was sure that she shared
my instinctive dislike of the man.

"I think not," she said. "Perhaps you are expecting me to come down
with the lunch and compliment you all upon your prowess."

"It would be delightful!" he murmured.

She shook her head.

"There are too many of you, and I am too few," she said lightly.
"Besides, shooting is one of the few sports with which I have no
sympathy at all. I shall try and get somewhere away from the sound of
your guns."

"I myself," he said, "am not what you call a devotee of the sport. I
wonder if part of the day one might play truant. Would Lady Angela take
pity upon an unentertained guest?"

"I should find it a shocking nuisance," she said, coolly. "Besides, it
would not be allowed. You will find that when my father has once
marshalled you, escape is a thing not to be dreamed of. Every one says
that he is a perfect martinet where a day's shooting is concerned."

He smiled enigmatically. "We shall see," he remarked, as he turned
away. Lady Angela watched him disappear. "Do you know who that is?"
she asked me. I shook my head. "Some one French, very French," I
remarked. "He should be," she remarked. "That is Prince Henri de
Malors. He represents the hopes of the Royalists in France."

"It is very interesting," I murmured. "May I ask is he an old family
friend?"

"Our families have been connected by marriage," she answered. "He and
Blenavon saw a great deal of one another in Paris, very much to the
disadvantage of my brother, I should think. I believe that there was
some trouble at the Foreign Office about it."

"It is very interesting," I repeated.

"Blenavon was very foolish," she declared. "It was obviously a most
indiscreet friendship for him, and Paris was his first appointment. But
I must go and speak to some of these people."

She rose and left me a little abruptly. I escaped by one of the side
entrances, and hurried back to my cottage.

CHAPTER XII

AN ACCIDENT

The Prince accepted my most comfortable easy chair with an air of
graceful condescension. Lady Angela had already seated herself. It was
late in the afternoon, and Grooton was busy in