Jeanne of the Marshes | Page 8

course, I haven't any
amusements to offer you, but you could rest as thoroughly as you like.
They say that the air is the finest in England. There is always bridge,
you know, for the evenings, and if Miss Jeanne likes bathing, my
gardens go down to the beach."
"It sounds delightful," the Princess said, "and exactly what we want.
We have a good many invitations, but I have not cared to accept any of
them, for I do not think that Jeanne would care much for the life at an
ordinary country house. I myself," she continued, with perfect truth,
"am not squeamish, but the last house-party I was at was certainly not
the place for a very young girl."
"Make up your mind, then, and say yes," Cecil de la Borne pleaded.
"You shall hear from us within the next few days," the Princess
answered. "I really believe that we shall come."
The little party left the restaurant a few minutes later on their way into
the foyer for coffee. The Princess contrived to pass out with Forrest as
her companion.
"I think," she said under her breath, "that this is the best opportunity

you could possibly have. We shall be quite alone down there, and
perhaps it would be as well that you were out of London for a few
weeks. If it does not come to anything we can easily make an excuse to
get away."
Forrest nodded.
"But who is this young man, De la Borne?" he asked. "I don't mean that.
I know who he is, of course, but why should he invite perfect strangers
to stay with him?"
The Princess smiled faintly.
"Can't you see," she answered, "that he is simply a silly boy? He is only
twenty-four years old, and I think that he cannot have seen much of the
world. He told me that he had just been abroad for the first time. He
fancies that he is a little in love with me, and he is dazzled, of course,
by the idea of Jeanne's fortune. He wants to play the host to us. Let him.
I should be glad enough to get away for a few weeks, if only to escape
from these pestering letters. I do think that one's tradespeople might let
one alone until the end of the season."
Forrest, who was feeling a good deal braver since dinner, on the whole
favoured the idea.
"I do not see," he remarked, "why it should not work out very well
indeed. There will be nothing to do in the evenings except to play
bridge, and no one to interfere."
"Besides which," the Princess remarked, "you will be out of London for
a few weeks, and I dare say that if you keep away from the clubs for a
time and lose a few rubbers when you get back your little trouble may
blow over."
"I suppose," Forrest remarked thoughtfully, "this young De la Borne
has no people living with him, guardians, or that sort of thing?"
"No one of any account," the Princess answered. "His father and

mother are both dead. I am afraid, though, he will not be of any use to
you, for from what I can hear he is quite poor. However, Engleton
ought to be quite enough if we can keep him in the humour for
playing."
"Ask him a few more questions about the place," Forrest said. "If it
seems all right, I should like to start as soon as possible."
They had their coffee at a little table in the foyer, which was already
crowded with people. Their conversation was often interrupted by the
salutations of passing acquaintances. Jeanne alone looked about her
with any interest. To the others, this sort of thing--the music of the
red-coated band, the flowers, and the passing throngs of people, the
handsomest and the weariest crowd in the world--were only part of the
treadmill of life.
"By the by, Mr. De la Borne," the Princess asked, "how much longer
are you going to stay in London?"
"I must go back to-morrow or the next day," the young man answered,
a little gloomily. "I sha'n't mind it half so much if you people only
make up your minds to pay me that visit."
The Princess motioned to him to draw his chair a little nearer to hers.
"If we take this tour at all," she remarked, "I should like to start the day
after to-morrow. There is a perfectly hideous function on Thursday
which I should so like to miss, and the stupidest dinner- party on earth
at night. Should you be home by then, do you think?"
"If there were any chance of your coming at all," the young man
answered eagerly, "I should leave by the first train