step-mother drew her into the
shelter of the open door.

"Jeanne," she said, "you seem to meet your friend the fisherman very
often. If you should see anything of him to-morrow, I wish you would
inquire particularly as to his lodger. You know whom I mean, the man
who was on the island with him yesterday afternoon."

Jeanne looked at her stepmother curiously.

"What am I to ask about him?" she demanded.

"Where he comes from, and what he is doing here," the Princess said.
"Find out if you can if Berners is really his name. I have a curious
idea about him, and Cecil fancies that he has seen him before."

Jeanne looked for a minute interested.

"You are not usually so curious about people," she remarked.

The Princess lowered her voice a little.

"Jeanne," she said, "I will tell you something. Lord Ronald, when he
left here, was very angry with us all. There was a quarrel, and he
behaved very absurdly. Cecil fancies that this man Berners is a friend
of Lord Ronald's. We want to know if it is so."

Jeanne raised her head and looked her stepmother steadily in the face.

"This is all very mysterious," she said. "I do not understand it at
all. We seem to be almost in hiding here, seeing no one and going
nowhere. And I notice that Major Forrest, whenever he walks even in the
garden, is always looking around as though he were afraid of something.
What did you quarrel with Lord Ronald about?"

"It is no concern of yours," the Princess answered, a little sharply.
"Major Forrest has had a somewhat eventful career, and he has made
enemies. It was chiefly his quarrel with Lord Ronald, and it was over a
somewhat serious matter. He has an idea that this man Berners is
connected with it in some way or other. Do find out if you can, there's
a dear child."

"I do not suppose," Jeanne said, "that Mr. Andrew would know anything.
However, when I see him I will ask him."

The Princess turned away from the open door, shivering.

"You are not really going out?" she said.

"Certainly I am," Jeanne answered. "I suppose you three will play
cards, and it does not interest me to watch you. There is nothing which
interests me here at all except the gardens and the sea. I am going
down to the beach, and then I shall sit there behind the hollyhocks
until it is bedtime."

The Princess looked at her curiously.

"You're a queer child," she said, turning away.

"It is not strange, that," Jeanne answered, with a little curl of the
li