ntre of the
gravelled path. Beyond her was the tall figure of a man.

"You are a trump, Neenah," cried Chase, hurrying up to her. "A Persian
angel!"

It was not Neenah's laugh that replied. Chase gasped in amazement and
then uttered a cry of joy.

The Princess Genevra, slim and erect, was standing before him, her hand
touching her turban in true military salute, soft laughter rippling from
her lips.

In the exuberance of joy, he clasped that little hand and crushed it
against his lips.

"You!" he exclaimed.

"Sh!" she warned, "I have retained my guard of honour."

He looked beyond her and beheld the tall, soldierly figure of a
Rapp-Thorberg guardsman.

"The devil!" fell involuntarily from his lips.

"Not at all. He is here to keep me from going to the devil," she cried
so merrily that he laughed aloud with her in the spirit of unbounded
joy. "Come! Let us run after the others. I want to run and dance and
sing."

He still held her hand as they ran swiftly down the drive, followed
closely by the faithful sergeant.

"You are an angel," he said in her ear. She laughed as she looked up
into his face.

"Yes--a Persian angel," she cried. "It's so much easier to run well in a
Persian angel's costume," she added.

CHAPTER XXXI

A PRESCRIBED MALADY

"You are wonderful, staying out there all night watching for--us." He
was about to say "me."

"How could any one sleep? Neenah found this dress for me--aren't these
baggy trousers funny? She rifled the late Mr. Wyckholme's wardrobe. This
costume once adorned a sultana, I'm told. It is a most priceless
treasure. I wore it to-night because I was much less conspicuous as a
sultana than I might have been had I gone to the wall as a princess."

"I like you best as the Princess," he said, frankly surveying her in the
grey light.

"I think I like myself as the Princess, too," she said naively. He
sighed deeply. They were quite close to the excited group on the terrace
when she said: "I am very, very happy now, after the most miserable
night I have ever known. I was so troubled and afraid----"

"Just because I went away for that little while? Don't forget that I am
soon to go out from you for all time. How then?"

"Ah, but then I will have Paris," she cried gaily. He was puzzled by her
mood--but then, why not? What could he be expected to know of the moods
of royal princesses? No more than he could know of their loves.

Lady Deppingham was got to bed at o