"
Katherine was displeased at the outlook. She was extremely fond of
dancing, and here this complacent young man had planted himself down
on a camp stool to talk of electricity.
"Miss Kempt, I am sorry that you are disappointed at our display. Your
slight upon British electrical engineering leaves us unscathed,
because this has been done by a foreign mechanic, whom I wish to
present to you."
"Oh, indeed," said Katherine, rather in the usual tone of her elder
sister. "I don't dance with mechanics, thank you."
She emphasized the light fantastic word, but the Lieutenant did not
take the hint; he merely laughed again in an exasperatingly
good-natured way, and said:
"Lady Angela is going to be Jack Lamont's partner for the next waltz."
"Oh," said Katherine loftily, "Lady Angela may dance with any
blacksmith that pleases her, but I don't. I'm taking it for granted
that Jack Lamont is your electrical tinsmith."
"Yes, he is, and I think him by all odds the finest fellow aboard this
ship. It's quite likely you have read about his sister. She is a year
older than Jack, very beautiful, cultured, everything that a grande
dame should be, yet she has given away her huge estate to the
peasantry, and works with them in the fields, living as they do, and
faring as they do. There was an article about her in one of the French
reviews not long ago. She is called the Princess Natalia."
"The Princess Natalia!" echoed Katherine, turning her face toward the
young man.
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