am in her eye with which her uncle had gone out upon Calais sands to
kill my Lord Wargrove.

And at this gentle Miss Aline sighed. She did not always understand
Patsy.

CHAPTER XVIII

UNCLE JULIAN'S PRINCESS

A blue-eyed, placid woman, with abundant fair hair of the sort which
hardly ever turns grey, came forward to receive Patsy. The drawing-room
of Hanover Lodge was long, and the windows looked on the river. Patsy
flitted forward with her usual lightness. She was not in the least
intimidated, but only regarded with immense interest the woman who had
loved her Uncle Julian and was still his faithful friend.

Patsy had had it in her mind to kiss the hand of the Princess, but she,
divining her intention, caught the girl in her arms and pressed her
close, kissing her on the cheek and forehead after some foreign fashion.

"You have come from Julian," she murmured, "you are very like him--the
daughter of his only sister. I shall love you well!"

"And this is my father!" said Patsy, who as usual took command of the
situation, as soon as there was a man anywhere about to be told what to
do. "Come forward, father!"

But though the laird of Cairn Ferris was only a country gentleman who
had seldom left the bounds even of his parish, he was come of good blood
and had been well brought up. He kneeled on one knee to kiss her hand,
perhaps not with the courtly grace of the ex-ambassador, his
brother-in-law, but still with a dignity which was altogether manly.

"I am glad to see you, Mr. Ferris of Cairn Ferris," said the Princess
Elsa. "I have never seen your beautiful land, but the best and wisest
men I have known have belonged to your nation--the courtliest and truest
gentlemen, both with sword and tongue."

She was silent a moment, and both Patsy Ferris and her father understood
that she was thinking of Julian Wemyss. Then she added very
thoughtfully, "I have spent a great part of my life among men who do not
speak the truth to women, and would think themselves shamed if they did.
Therefore I have learned how to cherish men of their word, and these I
have found among men of your nation."

"I fear me, your Highness," said Adam, smiling darkly, "that I could not
give my countrymen so wholesale a certificate for truth-speaking; but I
can also promise you that our Patsy will not lower your opinion of her
nation in that respect. Rather she speaks before she thinks, this maid,
and so gets herself and other people in