“They won’t trouble me any. The old lord and lady won’t be encouraged to come around much in town. I guess their influence wouldn’t be helpful.”
“Why, Fay Steinherz, I’m sure they’re real good, from what he says—church members and all that.”
“I’m not running him for church elder, Maimie. Lord Caerleon is just a Temperance crank, and the old lady never put on a Paris gown nor attended a smart function in her life. And they’re not smiled upon in the really good set because of those Eastern adventures they have on hand all the time. I have some use for the uncle Mr Hicks talks about, that married some queen or other, but that’s different. Of course I’ll visit at the Castle, and ask people there for shooting-parties and that. One must be in the country some time, I suppose. I wonder if there’s a dower-house, or whatever they call it in books? If there is, I guess the old folks might be brought to see the propriety of retiring to it, and leaving the Castle to us.”
“You seem to have got everything fixed up pretty nicely.”
“That is so. This outfit will be run on strict business lines, you’ll see. Pappa has me start under a disadvantage by his unfatherly conduct, but I wipe that out by marrying Usk. Then all depends on myself, and I can’t afford to have sentiment spoil my plans. I’ll see myself a duchess or vicereine of India yet.”
CHAPTER II.
BORN IN THE PURPLE.
Usk was late in keeping his dinner engagement with the Steinherzes. It was not his fault, as he explained eagerly when he arrived; he had left Llandiarmid at an unearthly hour in the morning, to make sure of catching the early train from Aberkerran, and had got up to town in excellent time. It was when he was driving from his rooms to the hotel that the delay occurred. The Archduke Ferdinand Joachim, cousin to the Emperor of Pannonia, who had just arrived on a visit to England, was being conducted in state to Buckingham Palace, and the British public had turned out in full force to welcome him. The royal carriages and liveries, and the fact that a popular Prince had gone to meet the traveller, made it evident that this was an occasion for cheering, and accordingly dense crowds lined the route, to the dire interruption of the traffic at all the cross-roads, in one of which Usk sat fuming in his hansom.
“Well, you must have had a pretty good view of the royalties, any way,” said Maimie Logan.
“Oh yes, but I had no particular yearning for that. I have seen the Prince so often, you know, and I didn’t care about the other chap. But I wished you and Miss Steinherz had been there. It’s a chance you don’t often get at this time of year.”
“What is the Archduke like, now?” asked Mr Steinherz suddenly. “You would be able to see him distinctly?”