A Honeymoon in Space | Page 5

daughter. However, of course I'm
pretty glad now that I did do it; though the experiments cost nearly five
thousand pounds and the craft herself close on a quarter of a million.
Still, she is worth every penny of it, and I was bringing her over to
offer to Miss Rennick as a wedding present, that is to say if she'd have
it--and me."
Captain Hawkins looked up and said rather seriously:
"Then, my Lord, I presume you don't know----"
"Don't know what?"
"That Miss Rennick is crossing in the care of Mrs. Van Stuyler, to be
married in London next month."
"The devil she is! And to whom, may I ask?" exclaimed his lordship,
pulling himself up very straight.
"To the Marquis of Byfleet, son of the Duke of Duncaster. I wonder
you didn't hear of it. The match was arranged last fall. From what

people say she's not very desperately in love with him, but--well, I
fancy it's like rather too many of these Anglo-American matches. A
couple of million dollars on one side, a title on the other, and mighty
little real love between them."
"But," said Redgrave between his teeth, "I didn't understand that Miss
Rennick ever had a fortune; in fact I'm quite certain that if her father
had been a rich man he'd have worked out his invention himself."
"Oh, the dollars aren't his. In fact they won't be hers till she marries,"
replied the Captain. "They belong to her uncle, old Russell Rennick. He
got in on the ground floor of the New York and Chicago ice trusts, and
made millions. He's going to spend some of them on making his niece a
Marchioness. That's about all there is to it."
"Oh, indeed!" said Redgrave, still between his teeth. "Well, considering
that Byfleet is about as big a wastrel as ever disgraced the English
aristocracy, I don't think either Miss Rennick or her uncle will make a
very good bargain. However, of course that's no affair of mine now. I
remember that this Russell Rennick refused to finance his brother when
he really wanted the money. He made a particularly bad bargain, too,
then, though he didn't know it; for a dozen crafts like that, properly
armed, would simply smash up the navies of the world, and make
sea-power a private trust. After all, I'm not particularly sorry, because
then it wouldn't have belonged to me. Well now, Captain, I'm going to
ask you to give me a bit of breakfast when it's ready, and then I must be
off. I want to be in Washington to-night."
"To-night! What, twenty-one hundred miles!"
"Why not?" said Redgrave; "I can do about a hundred and fifty an hour
through the atmosphere, and then, you see, if that isn't fast enough I can
rise outside the earth's attraction, let it spin round, and then come down
where I want to."
"Great Scott!" remarked Captain Hawkins inadequately, but with
emphasis. "Well, my Lord, I guess we'll go down to breakfast."

But breakfast was not quite ready, and so Lord Redgrave rejoined Miss
Rennick and her chaperon on deck. All eyes and a good many glasses
were still turned on the Astronef, which had now moved a few feet
away from the liner's side, and was running along, exactly keeping pace
with her.
"It's so wonderful, that even seeing doesn't seem believing," said the
girl, when they had renewed their acquaintance of two years before.
"Well," he replied, "it would be very easy to convince you. She shall
come alongside again, and if you and Mrs. Van Stuyler will honour her
by your presence for half an hour while breakfast is getting ready, I
think I shall be able to convince you that she is not the airy fabric of a
vision, but simply the realisation in metal and glass and other things of
visions which your father saw some years ago."
There was no resisting an invitation put in such a way. Besides, the
prospect of becoming the wonder and envy of every other woman on
board was altogether too dazzling for words.
Mrs. Van Stuyler looked a little aghast at the idea at first, but she too
had something of the same feeling as Zaidie, and besides, there could
hardly be any impropriety in accepting the invitation of one of the
wealthiest and most distinguished noblemen in the British Peerage. So,
after a little demur and a slight manifestation of nervousness, she
consented.
Redgrave signalled to the man at the steering wheel. The Astronef
slackened pace a little, dropped a yard or so, and slid up quite close to
the bridge-rail again. Lord Redgrave got in first and ran a light
gangway down on to the bridge. Zaidie and Mrs. Van Stuyler were
carefully handed up. The next