The two elder men watched him with
kind, furtive eyes, but they never questioned him, or made the slightest
allusion to his travels.
And the first day they heard him laugh Sir Charles looked down at the white
foam because a mist was in his eyes.
They had coasted round Italy and Sicily, and not among the Ionian Isles, as
had been Captain Grigsby's intention.
"I fancy the lady came from some of those Balkan countries," Sir Charles
had said. "Don't let us get in touch with even the outside of one of them."
And Mark Grigsby had grunted an assent.
"The boy is a fine fellow," he said one morning as they looked at Paul
hauling ropes. "He'll probably never get quite over this, but he is
fighting like a man, Charles--tell me as much as you feel inclined to of
the story."
So Sir Charles began in his short, broken sentences:
"Parson's girl to start with--sympathy over a broken collar-bone. The wife
behaved unwisely about it, so the boy thought he was in love. We sent him
to travel to get rid of that idea. It appears he met this lady in
Lucerne--seems to have been an exceptional person--a Russian, Tompson
says--a Queen or Princess _incog.,_ the fellow tells me--but I can't spot
her as yet. Hubert will know who she was, though--but it does not
matter--the woman herself was the thing.
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