"Oh!" cried Alicia.
The Duke looked surprised.
"What is the matter?" he asked and stroked his cheek. "I'm shaven?"
"How—how dare you?" she said hotly.
"Dare?" The Duke was puzzled. "Why, aren't you engaged to me?"
"You know I'm not! You know I've returned your hateful ring—you know——"
The Duke stopped her with an imperious gesture. "As to that matter," he said graciously, "will you accept my assurance that I have entirely overlooked it? Please never mention it again."
He left her with a confused feeling that somehow and in some manner she was under an obligation to him.
IV
El Mogreb Alaska, that enterprising sheet, duly announced the arrival of the Duke's party. "Unfortunately," said the journal, "one member of the Duke's entourage, the Rt. Hon. the Lord Tupping, was left behind at Gibraltar through some mistake as to the hour of the sailing of the Gibel Musa."