CHAPTER III.
After a couple of minutes of silence which could be felt, Mrs.Van Stuyler turned round and said angrily: "Zaidie, you will excuse me, perhaps, if I say that your conduct is not--I mean has not been what I should have expected--what I did, indeed, expect from your uncle's niece when I undertook to take you to Europe.

I must say----" "If I were you, Mrs.Van, I don't think I'd say much more about that, because, you see, it's fixed and done.

Of course, Lord Redgrave's only an earl, and the other is a marquis, but, you see, he's a man, and I don't quite think the other one is--and that's about all there is to it." Their host had just left the deck-saloon, taking the early coffee apparatus with him, and Miss Zaidie, in the first flush of her pride and re-found happiness, was taking a promenade of about twelve strides each way, while Mrs.Van Stuyler, after partially relieving her feelings as above, had seated herself stiffly in her wicker-chair, and was following her with eyes which were critical and, if they had been twenty years younger, might also have been envious.
"Well, at least I suppose I must congratulate you on your ability to accommodate yourself to most extraordinary circumstances.

I must say that as far as that goes I quite envy you.

I feel as though I ought to choke or take poison, or something of that sort." "Sakes, Mrs.Van, please don't talk like that!" said Zaidie, stopping in her walk just in front of her chaperon's chair.