ost of her time was spent
in looking after her master and mistress. I thought that she might be
handy as a messenger.

I went next day to Dun Moat, Terry having explained me as a friend who'd
helped get the house ready for guests, and thus deserved gratitude from
them. If I had inwardly reproached him for fickleness when he confessed
his _volte face_, I exonerated him at sight of his old love. On
principle, regard for a woman shouldn't change with her looks. But a
man's affection can't spread to the square inch!

Not that the Princess Avalesco's inches _were_ square. They were, on the
contrary, quite, quite round. But there were so terribly many of them,
mostly in the wrong place! And what was left of her beauty was
concentrated in a small island of features at the centre of a large sea
of face; one of those faces that ought to wear _stays_! Luckily she
needed no pity from me. She didn't know she was a tragic figure--if you
could call her a figure! And she didn't miss Terry's love, because she
loved herself overwhelmingly.

I succeeded in my object. She took a fancy to me as (so to speak) a
fellow princess. I sauntered through garden paths, hearing about all the
men who wanted to marry her, and was able to get a good look at _the_
window. There was, however, nothing to see there. An irritating gray
curtain covered it like a shut eyelid.

"Captain Burns has put some sort of old retainers into that wing it
seems," said Princess Avalesco, seeing me glance up. "He has a right to
do so, of course, as I'm paying a ridiculously low rent for this
wonderful house, and I've more rooms anyhow than I know what to do with.
He tells me the wing is comparatively modern, and not interesting, so I
don't mind."

I rejoiced that she was resigned! I'm afraid, if _I'd_ been the tenant
of Dun Moat, I should have felt about that "suite of the garden court"
as Fatima felt about Bluebeard's little locked room. In fact, I _did_
feel so; and though I was able to say "Yes" and "No" and "Oh, really?"
at the right places, I was thinking every moment how to find out what
that dropped curtain hid.

At first, I had planned to send Lady Scarlett a message by Kramm; but I
reflected that a refusal to receive visitors would raise a barrier
difficult to pass except by force. And force, unless we could be sure of
an affair for the police, was out of the question.

"_L'audace! Toujours l'audace!_" was the maxim which rang through my
head; and before