Cecil was shaking like a leaf.  The Princess looked towards him contemptuously.

“Come,” she said, “there is no need for you to behave like a terrified child.  Even if you have seen him once with Lord Ronald, what on earth is there in that to be terrified about?  Lord Ronald had many friends and acquaintances everywhere.  This one is surely harmless enough.  He behaved quite naturally on the island, remember.”

Cecil shook his head.

“I do not understand,” he said.  “I do not understand what he can be doing in this part of the world, unless he has some object.  I saw him just now standing behind a tree at the entrance to the drive, watching me drive golf balls out on to the marsh.  I am almost certain that he was about the place last night.  I saw some one who looked very much like him pass along the cliffs just about dinner-time.”

“You are frightened at shadows,” the Princess declared contemptuously.  “If he were one of Lord Ronald’s friends, and he had come here to look for him, he wouldn’t play about watching you from a distance.  Besides, there has been no time yet.  Lord Ronald only—­ left here yesterday morning.”

“What is he doing, then, watching this house?” Cecil asked.  “That is what I do not like.”

The Princess raised her eyebrows contemptuously.

“My dear Cecil,” she said, “it is just a coincidence, and not a very remarkable one at that.  Lord Ronald had the name, you know, of having acquaintances in every quarter of the world.”

Cecil drew a little breath.

“It may be all right,” he said, “but I am not used to this sort of thing, and it gives me the creeps.”

“Of course it is all right,” the Princess said composedly.  “One would think that we were a pack of children, to take any notice of such trifles.  It is too early, my dear Cecil, by many a day, to look for trouble yet.  Lord Ronald always wandered about pretty much as he chose.  It will be months before—­”

“Don’t go on,” Cecil interrupted.  “I suppose I am a fool, but all the time I am fancying things.”

Forrest moved away with a little laugh, and the Princess rose and thrust her arm through Cecil’s.

“Silly boy!” she said.  “You have nothing to be frightened about, I can assure you.”

“I am not frightened,” Cecil answered.  “I don’t think that I was ever a coward.  All the same, there are some things about this fellow which I don’t quite understand.”

The Princess laughed as she swept from the room.

“Don’t be foolish, Cecil,” she said.  “Remember that we are all here, and that nothing can go wrong unless we lose our nerve.”

Forrest found the Princess alone a little later in the evening, waiting in the hall for the dinner-gong.  He drew her into a corner, under pretext of showing her one of the old engravings, dark with age, which hung upon the wall.

“Ena,” he said, “I suppose that you trust Cecil de la Borne?  You haven’t any fear about him, eh?”