rtained the
audience. The Maharajah had insisted on learning to dance, his
instructress being an attractive Russian girl; then, as the fun grew
furious, he had forgotten his eastern dignity, and pirouetted for a
wager, with a valuable jar containing a palm. This jar he had promptly
broken, and had not been conciliatory to the proprietor. At five o'clock
he had driven his own car--bought at Marseilles--to Nice, full to
overflowing with his late partners. There had been a slight accident,
and to console the girls for their fright the Maharajah had divided all
his ready money among them. Since then he had had one fight with a
German, whom he had jostled, and who had called him a black man. Major
Norwood had been obliged to use the most nerve-racking exertions to keep
his princeling out of a French prison. Slightly subdued, the Maharajah
had consented to call at the palace at Monaco, to walk through the
beautiful gardens on the Rock with Hannaford, and to visit the Fish
Museum; but there was a yearning for new excitements in his dangerous
dark eyes, and Norwood had been thankful to see Carleton the airman
standing on the beach by his hangar. The two Americans were introduced
to the Indian royalty, and Carleton, not too eagerly, had just begun to
explain the features of his _Flying Fish_, when the big blue car brought
Miss Grant back.

At sight of Mary in a newly bought motor-bonnet, the Maharajah's eyes
lit up. He had seen her the night before at the Casino, and had started
the applause after her first sensational win. Now he asked to be
introduced, and Major Norwood's weary heart sank. Judging from the
expression of the plump olive face, this was going to be another case of
infatuation, and already there had been one on the ship, and one at
Cannes, both of which had necessitated the most delicate diplomacy. The
Maharajah was passionately fond of jewels, and had brought with him from
home some of the finest in his collection, which he intended to wear in
London. But on board ship he had given an emerald worth five hundred
pounds to the pretty young wife of an old Indian judge, who could not
resist accepting it; and at Cannes he had bestowed a diamond aigrette on
a second-rate actress. Major Norwood had tried to get these valuables
back, in vain; and now felt symptoms of heart failure whenever his
charge looked at a beautiful woman.

The Maharajah had an extraordinarily winning manner, however, almost
like that of a dignif