starving."

Cecil led the way across the hall into the dining-room.

"Come along," he said. "I wish we all had such healthy appetites."

She glanced at him, and then at the others.

"Well," she said, "you certainly look as though you had been up very
late last night. What is the matter with you all?"

"We were very foolish," Major Forrest said softly. "We sat up a great
deal too late, and I am afraid that we all smoked too many cigarettes.
You see it was our last night, for without Engleton our bridge is over."

"We must try," Cecil said, "and find some other form of entertainment
for you. Would you like to sail again this afternoon, Princess?"

"I believe," she answered, "that I should like it if I may have plenty
of cushions and a soft place for my head, so that if I feel like it I
can go to sleep. Really, these late nights are dreadful. I am almost
glad that Lord Ronald has gone. At least there will be no excuse for us
to sit up until daylight."

"To-night," Major Forrest remarked, "let us all be primitive. We will
go to bed at eleven o'clock, and get up in the morning and walk with
Miss Le Mesurier upon the marshes. What do you find upon the sands, I
wonder," he added, turning a little suddenly toward the girl, "to bring
such a colour to your cheeks, and to keep you away from us for so many
hours?"

Jeanne looked at him for a moment without change of features.

"It would not be easy," she said, "for me to tell you, for I find
things there which you could not appreciate or understand."

"You find them alone?" Major Forrest asked smiling.

She turned her left shoulder upon him and addressed her host.

"Major Forrest is very impertinent," she said. "I think that I will not
talk with him any more. Tell me, Mr. De la Borne, do you really mean
that we can go sailing this afternoon?"

"If you will," he answered. "I have sent down to the village to tell
them to bring the boat up to our harbourage."

She nodded.

"I shall love it," she declared. "It will be such a good thing for you
three, too, because it will make you all sleepy, and then you will be
able to go to bed and not worry about your bridge. When is Lord Ronald
coming back?"

"He was not quite sure," the Princess remarked. "It depends upon the
urgency of his business which summoned him away."

"How odd," Jeanne remarked, "to think of Lord Ronald as having any
business at all. I cannot understand even now why I did not hear the
car go. My room