household made its way to the front of the chateau.

At last Selim uttered a shout of joy. He forgot the deference due his
betters and unceremoniously dashed off toward the gates, followed by
Neenah, who seemed possessed of wings.

Chase was returning!

They saw him coming up the drive, his hat in his hand, his white
umbrella raised above his head. He drew nearer, sauntering as carelessly
as if nothing unusual lay behind him in the morning hours. The eager,
joyous watchers saw him greet Selim and his fluttering wife; they saw
Selim fall upon his knees, and they felt the tears rushing to their own
eyes.

"Hurray!" shouted little Mr. Saunders in his excitement. Bowles and the
three clerks joined him in the exhibition. Then the Persians and the
Turks and the Arabs began to chatter; the servants, always cold and
morose, revealed signs of unusual emotion; the white people laughed as
if suddenly delivered from extreme pain. The Princess was conscious of
the fact that at least five or six pairs of eyes were watching her face.
She closed her lips and compelled her eyelids to obey the dictates of a
resentful heart: she lowered them until they gave one the impression of
indolent curiosity, even indifference. All the while, her
incomprehensible heart was thumping with a rapture that knew no
allegiance to royal conventions.

A few minutes later he was among them, listening with his cool,
half-satirical smile to their protestations of joy and relief, assailed
by more questions than he could well answer in a day, his every
expression a protest against their contention that he had done a brave
and wonderful thing.

"Nonsense," he said in his most deprecating voice, taking a seat beside
the Princess on the railing and fanning himself lazily with his hat to
the mortification of his body-servant, who waved a huge palm leaf in
vigorous adulation. "It was nothing. Just being a witness, that's all.
You'll find how easy it is when you get back to London and have to
testify in the Skaggs will contest. Tell the truth, that's all." The
Princess was now looking at his brown face with eyes over which she had
lost control. "Oh, by the by," he said, as if struck by a sudden
thought. He turned toward the shady court below, where the eager
refugees from Aratat were congregated. A deep, almost sepulchral tone
came into his voice as he addressed himself to the veiled wives of Jacob
von Blitz. "It is my painful duty to announce to the Mesdames vo