Then, with a subdued though angry exclamation, the girl obeyed.
"You will not even hear me?" she cried, stamping one foot lightly against the veranda boards, while now her eyes brimmed with tears.
"By jove, but she's a bully actor," thought Benson, with a sort of admiration.
"I am sorry, Mademoiselle," he replied, "But I am wanted now. I am forced to say 'good evening.'"
With a bow he turned and left her, replacing his cap as he strode away.
"Oh, that fool, that unnatural young man!" she cried, angrily, to herself. "He prefers what he calls 'duty' to the friendly glance of a pretty eye. Bah! Perhaps he is laughing at me at this moment. If he is, he is laughing much too soon, for I shall teach him a lesson or two. You are not yet beyond my reach, my brave young Captain!"
The veil that Mlle. Nadiboff carefully wound so that two folds fell across her face concealed a hard, sneering, almost barbaric look that had crept quickly into that handsome young face.
But Jack joined his own party at once. Through the rest of the evening he did not encounter either the young woman or M. Lemaire. The latter, in fact, had made himself practically invisible of late.
The next afternoon, early, a launch from the gunboat brought off the pleasure party that was to make the trip on the submarine boat.
Mr. Farnum and David Pollard were ashore at this time. Captain Jack and
Eph Somers stood on the platform deck to receive and welcome the party.