“I never thought you were a coward!” she cried, bitterly. Caerleon looked down at her with a smile which he could not repress.
“I wonder whether it has ever occurred to you what a very queer girl you are?” he said. For the moment he thought that Nadia would have struck him.
“How dare you say that to me?” she cried, and rushed away.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE KING HAS HIS OWN.
“Can you spare me a minute or two, Princess?” asked Caerleon, coming into the cool and shaded drawing-room, where his hostess sat writing a circular letter to her band of Bible-women at Pavelsburg.
“I will spare you any number of minutes—half an hour if you like,” returned the Princess, with a smile. “Sit down here,” and she pointed to a low chair beside her.
“Cyril and I have been talking over our plans,” Caerleon went on, but she interrupted him impulsively.
“I hope you did not decide to adopt any of them, then, for I have one to suggest. The doctor recommends a sea-voyage for your brother, and I have been looking forward to your coming with us for a cruise in the Anna Karénina.”
“You are much too kind,” said Caerleon. “After the shameful way in which we have been imposing upon your good nature all these weeks, we really can’t quarter ourselves upon you any longer. Now that Cyril is well enough to travel, we ought to be looking out for some place of our own.”
“But what will you do?” asked the Princess. “You would not return to England now—in February? It would be fatal. And if you were travelling about on the Continent, your brother could not be properly looked after. Oh, I know that you and your good Wright would take every care of him, but it would not be the care which a woman gives—which we have been giving him.”