“A set of rubies which a certain lady of whom you may have heard (she is now the Princess of Dardania) presented to Caerleon with the request that he would hand them on to you,” answered Cyril, promptly.
“I am glad they are lost. I would never have worn them,” said Nadia, with decision. “Come,” she said to Caerleon, “let us walk up and down the deck a little, Carlino. It is cold here.”
Caerleon rose immediately, and when they were gone Cyril turned and looked benignly at the Princess. “Do you feel guilty?” he inquired. “I ask because I am morally certain that while I took occasion to speak to Caerleon last night for his good, you addressed a slight remonstrance to Miss Nadia. This is the result. Do you not feel appalled at the risk?”
“All marriages are risks,” returned the Princess; “but I hope there will be less danger than usual about this one. In the first place, they cannot be married for six months at least, for it is not a year until August since your father’s death, and they will learn to know each other very thoroughly during this tour of ours.”
“There’s a good deal in that,” assented Cyril. “If people can keep the peace on board ship, they are pretty safe anywhere.”
“Then,” went on the Princess, “your brother is singularly calm and reasonable——”
“And therefore well fitted to cope with an unreasonable woman, you would say?” suggested Cyril.
“No,” said the Princess, taking up the cudgels on behalf of her god-daughter, “Nadia is not unreasonable. She is very downright, and she sees only one thing at a time. I think you have a word for this characteristic of hers, but I forget it.”
“One-idea’d?” said Cyril.
“Yes; that is it. And she will never do what she thinks is wrong.”