"I suppose I am rather a thorn in your side as a relative," she remarked. "You must put it down to the roving blood of my ancestors. I could no more live the life of you other women than I could fly. I must have excitement, movement, all the time."
A tall, heavily built man, who had been reading some letters at the other end of the room, came sauntering up to them.
"Well," he said, "you assuredly live up to your principles, for you travel all over the world as though it were one vast playground."
"And sometimes," she remarked, "my journeys are not exactly successful. I know that that is what you are dying to say."
"On the contrary," he said, "I do not blame you at all for this last affair. You brought Lucille here, which was excellent. Your failure as regards Mr. Sabin is scarcely to be fastened upon you. It is Horser whom we hold responsible for that."
"Poor Horser! It was rather rough to pit a creature like that against Souspennier."
"Horser," he said, "may not be brilliant, but he had a great organisation at his back. Souspennier was without friends or influence. The contest should scarcely have been so one-sided. To tell you the truth, my dear Muriel, I am more surprised that you yourself should have found the task beyond you."
"It was too soon after the loss of Lucille," she said, "and besides, there was his vanity to be reckoned with. It was like a challenge to him, and he had taken up the glove before I returned to New York."
"Have you had any conversation with my husband, Prince?" she asked.
The Prince of Saxe Leinitzer twirled his heavy moustache and sank into a chair between the two women.
"I have had a long talk with him," he announced. "And the result?" the Duchess asked.
"The result I fear you would scarcely consider satisfactory," the Prince declared. "The moment that I hinted at the existence of--er--conditions of which you, Duchess, are aware, he showed alarm, and I had all that I could do to reassure him. I find it everywhere amongst your aristocracy--this stubborn confidence in the existence of the reigning order of things, this absolute detestation of anything approaching intrigue."
"My dear man, I hope you don't include me," Lady Carey exclaimed.
"You, Lady Muriel," he answered, with a slow smile, "are an exception to all rules. No, you are a rule by yourself."