The
Maharajah was passionately fond of jewels, and had brought with him from
home some of the finest in his collection, which he intended to wear in
London. But on board ship he had given an emerald worth five hundred
pounds to the pretty young wife of an old Indian judge, who could not
resist accepting it; and at Cannes he had bestowed a diamond aigrette on
a second-rate actress. Major Norwood had tried to get these valuables
back, in vain; and now felt symptoms of heart failure whenever his
charge looked at a beautiful woman.
The Maharajah had an extraordinarily winning manner, however, almost
like that of a dignified child, and his way of speaking English was
engaging. Mary had never seen an East Indian before, and was much
interested to meet one. She gave him her prettiest smiles and looks,
while the other men stood round her, each secretly annoyed to see her
treating a "black fellow" as if he were the equal of a European.
"I'm hanged if I'll stand on ceremony with the chap, if he is some kind
of potentate," Carleton grumbled; and, interrupting the conversation,
asked Mary if she were of the same mind about being his passenger for a
flight.
"Of course!" she answered. But Carleton had not yet stepped into the
hangar when Prince Vanno Della Robbia passed on foot, going to the
palace on the Rock.
He had returned to his hotel after lunching with the cure, had dressed
and, as he was told there might be a small revolution in progress at
Monaco--something worth seeing--he had started out to walk.
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