They all started off in cabs for
the harbour and _White Lady's_ slip, where a motor-launch from the yacht
would meet them; and Mary made friends with Dom Ferdinand, who was the
only man in the carriage with her and Lady Dauntrey.
Arriving at the slip they found Major Norwood and the Maharajah of
Indorwana also waiting for the launch, with Captain Hannaford; and Mary
introduced all three to the party from the Villa Bella Vista, whom they
did not yet know. Then came Dick Carleton, alone, for Schuyler had
firmly refused to sacrifice himself on the altar of friendship, and half
a dozen smart, merry little officers of the Chasseurs Alpins, stationed
at Mentone, and up at the lonely fort on Mont Agel. By this time it was
late, for Lady Dauntrey wished to make a dramatic entry after most of
the guests had already come on board, and the wish was more than
granted. She, with her gorgeous widow and the two girls, attended by
fifteen men, burst upon the crowd, who, for the best of reasons, had not
yet begun to dance. Besides Mrs. Holbein and her daughter, there was not
another woman present until the party from the Villa Bella Vista
appeared.
Seldom could there have been a more curious scene, upon a magnificently
appointed yacht, decorated for a dance. Already, when Lady Dauntrey and
her impromptu train arrived, forty or fifty men were assembled on a deck
screened in by flags and masses of palms and flowers. A Hungarian band
imported from Paris was playing, not dance music, for that would have
been a mockery in the circumstances, but gay marches and lively airs to
cheer drooping spirits.
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