The absence of the little musician set Chase to thinking, then to speculating and, in the end, to rejoicing.

Her uncle by marriage, an English nobleman of high degree, in gathering his friends for the long cruise, evidently had left the Prince out of his party, for what reason Chase could not imagine.

To say that the omission was gratifying to the tall American would be too simple a statement.

There is no telling to what heights his thoughts might have carried him on that sultry afternoon if they had not been harshly checked by the arrival of a messenger from the chateau.

His blood leaped with anticipation.