“Next to her stood the Princess Aline of Hohenwald”
“She is the most charming creature in the world, Mrs. Downs,” cried Carlton, “and I was going all the way to Grasse to see her, and now it turns out that she is here in England, within a few miles of us.” He turned and waved his hands at the passing landscape. “Every minute brings us nearer together.”
“And you didn’t feel it in the air!” mocked Miss Morris, laughing. “You are a pretty poor sort of a man to let a girl tell you where to find the woman you love.”
Carlton did not answer, but stared at her very seriously and frowned intently. “Now I have got to begin all over again and readjust things,” he said. “We might have guessed she would be in London, on account of this royal wedding. It is a great pity it isn’t later in the season, when there would be more things going on and more chances of meeting her. Now they will all be interested in themselves, and, being extremely exclusive, no one who isn’t a cousin to the bridegroom or an Emperor would have any chance at all. Still, I can see her! I can look at her, and that’s something.”
“It is better than a photograph, anyway,” said Miss Morris.
“They will be either at Buckingham Palace or at Windsor, or they will stop at Brown’s,” said Carlton. “All royalties go to Brown’s. I don’t know why, unless it is because it is so expensive; or maybe it is expensive because royalties go there; but, in any event, if they are not at the palace, that is where they will be, and that is where I shall have to go too.”
When the train drew up at Victoria Station, Carlton directed Nolan to take his things to Brown’s Hotel, but not to unload them until he had arrived. Then he drove with the ladies to Cox’s, and saw them settled there. He promised to return at once to dine, and to tell them what he had discovered in his absence. “You’ve got to help me in this, Miss Morris,” he said, nervously. “I am beginning to feel that I am not worthy of her.”
“Oh yes, you are!” she said, laughing; “but don’t forget that ‘it’s not the lover who comes to woo, but the lover’s way of wooing,’ and that ‘faint heart’—and the rest of it.”
“Yes, I know,” said Carlton, doubtfully; “but it’s a bit sudden, isn’t it?”
“Oh, I am ashamed of you! You are frightened.”