The prince looked at Captain Odo. "You cannot put me
into a gallop when I choose to walk," he said. "She's a
pretty girl, and a good girl, and some time I may marry
her, but not now."
Odo laughed good-humoredly, and they sauntered down the
path together.
The prince had offered to dine with Miss Vance that
evening, but sent a note to say that he was summoned to
the Highlands unexpectedly.
"It is adieu, not auf wiedersehen, I fear, with his
Highness," Miss Vance said, folding the note pensively.
She had not meant to drive a marriage bargain, and
yet--to have placed a pupil upon even such a bric-a-brac
throne as that of Wolfburgh! She looked thoughtfully at
Lucy's chubby cheeks. A princess? The man was not
objectionable in himself, either--a kindly, overgrown
boy.
"He told me," said Jean, "that he was going to a house
party at Inverary Castle."
"Whose house is that, Jean?" asked Lucy.
"It is the ancestral seat of the Dukes of Argyll."
"Oh!" Lucy gave a little sigh. Prince Hugo was
undeniably fat and very slow to catch a joke, but there
was certainly a different flavor in this talk of dukes
and ancestral seats to the gossip about the Whites and
Greens at home.
Indeed, the whole party, including even Mr. Perry,
experienced a sensation of sudden vacancy and
flatness when his Highness left them. It was as though
they had been sheltering a royal eagle that was used to
dwelling in sunlit heights unknown to them, and now they
were left on flat ground to consort with common poultry.
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