or
Beechy, that I ordered coffee and rolls for myself alone on the terrace;
and they had just appeared when Mr. Barrymore came out. He was going
presently to see to the car, so naturally we had breakfast together,
with an addition of some exquisite wild strawberries, gleaming like
_cabouchon_ rubies under a froth of whipped cream. It was only eight
o'clock, when we finished, and he said there would be time for one last
stroll through the divinest garden in Italy, if I cared for it. Of
course I did care, so we walked together up the rose-bordered path from
the sweet-smelling flower-zone to the pine-belt that culminates in the
pirates' castle. While we stood looking down over the three arms of the
lake in their glittering blue sleeves, a voice spoke behind us: "Ah,
Miss Destrey, I've found you at last. Your cousin asked me to look for
you and bring you back as soon as possible. You are urgently wanted for
something, though what was not confided to me."

The Prince used to be troublesome when he first attached himself to our
party. If ever he happened to meet me in the big hall or the garden of
the hotel at Cap Martin, when neither Aunt Kathryn nor Beechy was with
me, he always made some pretext to talk and pay me stupid compliments,
though he would flee if my relations came in sight. After the trip
began, however, his manner was suddenly different, and he showed no more
desire for my society than I for his; therefore I was surprised by an
equally sudden change this morning. It was hardly to be defined in
words, but it was very noticeable. Even his way of looking at me was not
the same. At Cap Martin it used to be rather bold, as if I were the kind
of person who ought to be flattered by any attention from a Prince
Dalmar-Kalm. Later, if he glanced at me at all, it was with an odd
expression, as if he wished me to regret something, I really couldn't
imagine what. But now there was a sort of reverence in his gaze and
manner, as if I were a queen and he were one of my courtiers. As I'm not
a queen, and wouldn't care to have him for a courtier if I were, I
wasn't pleased when he attempted to keep at my side going down by the
narrow path up which Mr. Barrymore and I had walked together. He didn't
precisely thrust Mr. Barrymore out of the way, but seemed to take it for
granted, as it were by right of his rank, that it was for him, not the
others to walk beside me.

I resented this, for to my mind it is horribly caddish for a pe