t which lay like a
thread of torture amongst the nerves of Prince Shan's being. There was
no more distinguished figure among the men there than he himself, and
yet the sense of alienation grew in his heart as he watched. There were
many familiar faces, many to whom he could have spoken, no one who would
not have greeted him with interest, even with gratification. And yet he
had never been so deeply conscious of the gulf which lay between the
oriental fatalism of his life and ways and the placid self-assurance of
these westerners, so well-content with the earth upon which their feet
fell. He had judged with perfect accuracy the place which he held in
their thoughts and estimation. He was something of a curiosity, his
title half a joke, the splendour of his long race a thing unrealisable
by these scions of a more recent aristocracy. Yet supposing that this
new wonder had not come into his life, that Immelan had been a shade
more eloquent, had pleaded his cause upon a higher level, that Naida
Karetsky also had formed a different impression of the world which he
was studying so earnestly,--what a transformation he could have brought
upon this light-hearted and joyous scene! The scales had so nearly
balanced; at the bottom of his heart he was conscious of a certain faint
contempt for the almost bovine self-satisfaction of a nation without
eyes. Literature and painting, art in all its far-flung branches, even
science, were suffering in these days from a general and paralysing
inertia. Life which demanded no sacrifice of anybody was destructive of
everything in the nature of aspiration. Sport seemed to be the only
incentive to sobriety, the desire to live long in this fat land the only
brake upon an era of self-indulgence. He looked eastwards to where his
own millions were toiling, with his day-by-day maxims in their ears, and
it seemed to his elastic fancy that he was inhaling a long breath of
cooler and more vigorous life.

The current of his reflections was broken. He had moved a little towards
the rails, and he was instantly aware of the girl cantering towards
him,--a slight, frail figure, she seemed, upon a great bay horse. She
wore a simple brown habit and bowler hat, and she sat her horse with
that complete lack of self-consciousness which is the heritage of a born
horsewoman. She was looking up at the sky as she cantered towards him,
with no thought of the crowds passing along the promenade. Yet, as she
drew nearer, sh