‘But look here, Helen Racksole. We shall have the whole of London talking about this thing—the greatest of all American heiresses a hotel clerk! And I came here for quiet and rest!’
‘I suppose it was for the sake of quiet and rest that you bought the hotel, Papa?’
‘You would insist on the steak,’ he retorted. ‘Get out of this, on the instant.’
‘Here I am, here to stay,’ said Nella, and deliberately laughed at her parent.
Just then the face of a fair-haired man of about thirty years appeared at the bureau window. He was very well-dressed, very aristocratic in his pose, and he seemed rather angry.
He looked fixedly at Nella and started back.
‘Ach!’ he exclaimed. ‘You!’
‘Yes, your Highness, it is indeed I. Father, this is his Serene Highness Prince Aribert of Posen—one of our most esteemed customers.’
‘You know my name, Fräulein?’ the new-comer murmured in German.
‘Certainly, Prince,’ Nella replied sweetly. ‘You were plain Count Steenbock last spring in Paris—doubtless travelling incognito—’