During the stroll there it was Sabine’s custom persistently to adhere to the side of Mr. Cloudwater, leaving the other two tete-a-tete—­and, delightful as Lord Fordyce found the Princess, this irritated him.  He discovered himself, as the days advanced, to be experiencing a distinct longing to know what was passing in that little head, whose violet eyes looked out with so much mystery and shadow in their depths.  He could not tell himself that she avoided him; she was always friendly and casual and perfectly at her ease, but no extra look of pleasure or welcome for him personally ever came into her face, and never once had he been able to speak to her really alone.  Mr. Cloudwater and the two ladies drove back from breakfast each day, and he was left to take his exercises and his bath.  Now and then he had encountered the Princess in the near woods just before luncheon, returning from the Kaiserbad, but Mrs. Howard never—­and when he inquired how she spent her time, she replied however she happened to fancy, which gave him no clue as to where he might find her—­and with all her frank charm, she was not a person to whom it was easy to put a direct question.  Lord Fordyce began to grow too interested for his peace of mind.  When he realized this, he got very angry with himself.  He had never permitted a woman to be anything but a mild recreation in his life, and at forty it was a little late to begin to experience something serious about one.

They often motored in the afternoon to various resorts not too far distant, and there took tea; and for two whole days it had been wet and, except at meals, the ladies had lain perdues.

However fate was kind on a Saturday morning, and allowed Lord Fordyce to chance upon Mrs. Howard, right up at the Belvedere in the far woods, looking over the valley.  She was quite alone, and her slender figure was outlined against the bright sunlight as she leaned on the balustrade gazing down at the exquisite scene.

Henry could have cried aloud in joy, “At last!” but he restrained himself, and instead only said a casual “Hullo!” Mrs. Howard turned and looked at him, and answered his greeting with frank cordiality.

“Have you never been here before?  I think it is one of the most lovely spots in the whole woods, and at this time there is never any one—­what made you penetrate so far?”

“Good fortune!  The jade has been unkind until now.”

They leant on the balustrade together.

“I always like being up on a high mountain and looking down at things, don’t you?” she said.

“No, not always—­one feels lonely—­but it is nice if one is with a suitable companion.  How have you, at your age, managed to become self-sufficing?”

“Circumstance, I expect, has taught me the beauty of solitude.  I spend months alone in Brittany.”

“And what do you do—­read most of the time?”

He was so enchanted that she was not turning the conversation into banal things, he determined not to say anything which would cause her again to draw down the blind of bland politeness.