"
"What a wonderful imagination you have, Kate. All you have said is
pure fancy. I saw he was taken with you from the very first. He never
even glanced at me."
"Of course not: he wasn't allowed to."
"Nonsense, Kate. If I thought for a moment you were really in earnest,
I should say you underestimate your own attractions."
"Oh, that's all very well, Miss Dorothy Dimple; you are trying to draw
a red herring across the trail, because you know that what I want to
hear is why Lieutenant Drummond was so anxious to get me somewhere
else. What use did he make of the opportunity the good-natured Prince
and my sweet complacency afforded him?"
"He said nothing which might not have been overheard by any one."
"Come down to particulars, Dorothy, and let me judge. You are so
inexperienced, you know, that it is well to take counsel with a more
sophisticated friend."
"I don't just remember--"
"No, I thought you wouldn't. Did he talk of himself or of you?"
"Of himself, of course. He told me why he was going to Russia, and
spoke of some checks he had met in his profession."
"Ah! Did he cash them?"
"Obstacles-- difficulties that were in his way, which he hoped to
overcome."
"Oh, I see. And did you extend that sympathy which--"
There was a knock at the door, and the maid came in, bearing a card.
"Good gracious me!" cried Katherine, jumping to her feet. "The Prince
has come.
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