As she spoke the lightning flared again but revealed nothing.
"You see there is no ship, Mademoiselle," said Angelescu, "and landsman though I be, I know that she would show some lights if she were there."
"Then," said Ragna in a low voice, "the sign is not for you—it was the ship of my Uncle Olaf."
"What are you talking about so earnestly?" asked Prince Mirko, joining them. He had been lighting a cigarette in the shelter of the companion-way. His tone was suspicious, he thought that Angelescu might have been warning the girl against him. The mere fact that he suspected such a contingency and resented it, was proof patent that his good resolution of the afternoon had fallen into abeyance.
During the brief moment when he had held her in his arms, had felt her heart beating under his hand and the stray locks of her hair blowing across his face, his pulse had given a leap, and had it not been for Angelescu's restraining presence, he would have kissed her.
Angelescu hastened to reassure him:
"Mademoiselle has seen the phantom ship of her phantom uncle—I have not, which proves that my spiritual vision is defective."
Ragna laughed.
"Should I be able to see your family ghost, I wonder?" she queried.
"What makes you think I have a family ghost, Mademoiselle?"