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attractive.
"SAPRISTI! but she would cause a sensation in St. Petersburg." And he would, too, with the assistance
of her inheritance.
After Monsieur Thuran had squandered a few million dollars, he discovered that the vocation was so
entirely to his liking that he would continue on down to Cape Town, where he suddenly decided that he
had pressing engagements that might detain him there for some time.
Miss Strong had told him that she and her mother were to visit the latter's brother there--they had not
decided upon the duration of their stay, and it would probably run into months.
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She was delighted when she found that Monsieur Thuran was to be there also.
"I hope that we shall be able to continue our acquaintance," she said. "You must call upon mamma and
me as soon as we are settled."
Monsieur Thuran was delighted at the prospect, and lost no time in saying so. Mrs. Strong was not quite
so favorably impressed by him as her daughter.
"I do not know why I should distrust him," she said to Hazel one day as they were discussing him. "He
seems a perfect gentleman in every respect, but sometimes there is something about his eyes--a fleeting
expression which I cannot describe, but which when I see it gives me a very uncanny feeling."
The girl laughed. "You are a silly dear, mamma," she said.
"I suppose so, but I am sorry that we have not poor Mr. Caldwell for company instead."
"And I, too," replied her daughter.
Monsieur Thuran became a frequent visitor at the home of Hazel Strong's uncle in Cape Town. His
attentions were very marked, but they were so punctiliously arranged to meet the girl's every wish that
she came to depend upon him more and more. Did she or her mother or a cousin require an escort--was
there a little friendly service to be rendered, the genial and ubiquitous Monsieur Thuran was always
available. Her uncle and his family grew to like him for his unfailing courtesy and willingness to be of
service. Monsieur Thuran was becoming indispensable. At length, feeling the moment propitious, he
proposed. Miss Strong was startled. She did not know what to say.
"I had never thought that you cared for me in any such way," she told him. "I have looked upon you
always as a very dear friend. I shall not give you my answer now. Forget that you have asked me to be
your wife. Let us go on as we have been--then I can consider you from an entirely different angle for a
time. It may be that I shall discover that my feeling for you is more than friendship. I certainly have not
thought for a moment that I loved you."
This arrangement was perfectly satisfactory to Monsieur Thuran. He deeply regretted that he had been
hasty, but he had loved her for so long a time, and so devotedly, that he thought that every one must
know it.
"From the first time I saw you, Hazel," he said, "I have loved you. I am willing to wait, for I am certain
that so great and pure a love as mine will be rewarded. All that I care to know is that you do not love
another. Will you tell me?"
"I have never been in love in my life," she replied, and he was quite satisfied. On the way home that night
he purchased a steam yacht, and built a million-dollar villa on the Black Sea.
The next day Hazel Strong enjoyed one of the happiest surprises of her life--she ran face to face upon
Jane Porter as she was coming out of a jeweler's shop.
"Why, Jane Porter!" she exclaimed. "Where in the world did you drop from? Why, I can't believe my
own eyes."
"Well, of all things!" cried the equally astonished Jane. "And here I have been wasting whole reams of
perfectly good imagination picturing you in Baltimore--the very idea!" And she threw her arms about her
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friend once more, and kissed her a dozen times.
By the time mutual explanations had been made Hazel knew that Lord Tennington's yacht had put in at
Cape Town for at least a week's stay, and at the end of that time was to continue on her voyage--this
time up the West Coast--and so back to England. "Where," concluded Jane, "I am to be married."
"Then you are not married yet?" asked Hazel.
"Not yet," replied Jane, and then, quite irrelevantly, "I wish England were a million miles from here.
Visits were exchanged between the yacht and Hazel's relatives. Dinners were arranged, and trips into the
surrounding country to entertain the visitors. Monsieur Thuran was a welcome guest at every function. He
gave a dinner himself to the men of the party, and managed to ingratiate himself in the good will of Lord
Tennington by many little acts of hospitality.
Monsieur Thuran had heard dropped a hint of something which might result from this unexpected visit of
Lord Tennington's yacht, and he wanted to be counted in on it. Once when he was alone with the
Englishman he took occasion to make it quite plain that his engagement to Miss Strong was to be
announced immediately upon their return to America. "But not a word of it, my dear Tennington--not a
word of it."
"Certainly, I quite understand, my dear fellow," Tennington had replied. "But you are to be
congratulated--ripping girl, don't you know--really."
The next day it came. Mrs. Strong, Hazel, and Monsieur Thuran were Lord Tennington's guests aboard
his yacht. Mrs. Strong had been telling them how much she had enjoyed her visit at Cape Town, and that
she regretted that a letter just received from her attorneys in Baltimore had necessitated her cutting her
visit shorter than they had intended.
"When do you sail?" asked Tennington.
"The first of the week, I think," she replied. "Indeed?" exclaimed Monsieur Thuran. "I am very fortunate.
I, too, have found that I must return at once, and now I shall have the honor of accompanying and serving
you."
"That is nice of you, Monsieur Thuran," replied Mrs. Strong. "I am sure that we shall be glad to place
ourselves under your protection." But in the bottom of her heart was the wish that they might escape him.
Why, she could not have told.
"By Jove!" ejaculated Lord Tennington, a moment later. "Bully idea, by Jove!"
"Yes, Tennington, of course," ventured Clayton; "it must be a bully idea if you had it, but what the deuce
is it? Goin' to steam to China via the south pole?"
"Oh, I say now, Clayton," returned Tennington, "you needn't be so rough on a fellow just because you
didn't happen to suggest this trip yourself--you've acted a regular bounder ever since we sailed. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]