woman who can
preserve any charm of personal appearance under the ordeal of a Turkish
Bath--"

There came a discreet little cough from the neighbourhood of Mrs
Masterman. The little American stopped abruptly.

"I'd best say no more," she said. Then she laughed. "All the same, if
you only could see us--"

CHAPTER SEVEN.

CURIOSITY.

There was suppressed but general excitement throughout the hotel all the
next day.

Someone had caught sight of the Princess Zairoff, who had driven out
after luncheon in a low open carriage with three horses harnessed
abreast in Russian fashion, that went like the wind. Colonel Estcourt
was beside her, and curiosity was rife as to how he should have known
her, and whether accident only was responsible for the meeting of two
people, one of whom had come from Russia, and the other from India, to
this prosaic English nook, _for their health_.

Mrs Masterman sniffed ominously, as one who scents scandal and
impropriety in facts that do not adapt themselves to every-day rules of
life. A few other women, suffering from one or other of the fashionable
complaints in vogue at this season, agreed with her, that "it certainly
looked very odd." They did not specify the "it," but they were quite
convinced of the oddity. It did not occur to them to reflect that there
was not the slightest reason for any mystery on the part of the
Princess, she being perfectly free and untrammelled, or that Colonel
Estcourt had been singularly gloomy and depressed before Mrs
Jefferson's graphic description of the mysterious beauty attracted his
notice.

There is a certain class of people who always shake their heads, and
purse up their lips, at the mere suggestion of "chance," or "accident,"
having a fortunate or happy application. They do not apply the same
train of reasoning to the reverse side of the picture; the bias of their
nature is evidently suspicious. These are the minds that refuse to
credit those little misfortunes of picnic and pleasure parties, by which
young people lose themselves in mysterious ways, and get into wrong
boats and carriages, and generally contrive to upset the plans of their
elders, when these plans have been framed with a deeper regard for
rationality than for romance. Mrs Masterman belonged to this class,
which doubtless has its uses, though those uses are not plainly evident
on the surface of life; she spent the day in gloomy hints, and
mysterious shakes of the head