"In days of old when knights were bold
And barons held their sway,
A warrior bold with spurs of gold
Sang merrily his lay.
'Oh, what care I though death be nigh,
For love—'"
But Armitage had disappeared.
"Oh, the little more and how much it is,
And the little less and what worlds away."
CHAPTER XIII
ANNE EXHIBITS THE PRINCE
Prince Koltsoff had enjoyed his luncheon, as only an exacting gourmet whose every canon of taste has been satisfied, can. His appetite was a many-stringed instrument upon which only the most gifted culinary artist could play. Now as he sat dallying daintily with his compote of pears it was patent that Rambon, the Wellington chef, had achieved a dietary symphony.
"Mrs. Wellington," he said at length, "you have a saucier par excellence. That sauce de cavitar! If I may say so, it lingers. Who is he? It seems almost—yet it cannot be true—that I recognize the genius of Jules Rambon."
"Very well done, Prince Koltsoff," replied Mrs. Wellington, employing phraseology more noncommittal than Koltsoff realized.
Anne, who had been gazing languidly out a window giving on Brenton's Reef lightship, where several black torpedo boats and destroyers were manoeuvring, smiled and glanced at the Prince.