"Common ragged creatures, but one with some ankles and one with a voice.
In any case, we must celebrate these ladies' last night."
And thus the terrible present end to their acquaintance fell about!
Nothing could have been more charming than the Prince was until
dinner-time, and indeed through that meal, only he made Stephen Strong
change places with him, so that he might be next Mrs. Hardcastle, much
to that lady's delight.
"He is really too fascinating," she said, as she came into Tamara's
cabin to fetch her for the evening meal. "I hardly think Henry would
like his devotion to me. What do you think, dear?"
"I am sure he would be awfully jealous, Milly darling; you really must
be careful," Tamara said. And with a conscious air of complacent
pleasantly tickled virtue Mrs. Hardcastle led the way to the saloon.
It was not possible, Tamara thought, that anything so terribly
unpleasant as the Prince's having too much champagne at dinner, could
have accounted for his simply scandalous behavior after; and yet surely
that would have been the kindest thing to say. But, no, it was not
that.
This was, in brief, the scene which was enacted on the upper deck: With the permission of the captain, the gipsy troupe were brought, and
began their performance, tame enough at the commencement until the
Prince gave orders for them to be supplied with unlimited champagne,
and then the wildest dancing began. They writhed and gesticulated and
undulated in a manner which made Millicent cling on to her chair, grow
crimson in the face, and finally start to her feet.
But the worst happened when the Prince rose and, taking a tambourine,
began, with a weird shriek, to beat it wildly, his eyes ablaze and his
lips apart.
Then, seizing the chief dancer and banging it upon her head, he held
his arm about her heaving breast, as she turned to him with a
serpentine movement of voluptuous delight.
In a second he had caught hold of her, and had lifted and swung her far
out over the dark blue waters, then, with a swirl to the side, held her
suspended in the air above the open deck below.
"Ha, ha!" yelled the troupe, in frenzied pleasure, and, nimble as a
cat, one rough dark man rushed down the ladder and caught the hanging
woman in his arms. Then they all clapped and cheered and shrieked with
joy, while the Prince, putting his hands in his pockets, pulled out
heaps of gold and flung it among them.
"Back to hell, rats!" he shouted, laughing. "See, you have frightened
the ladies. You should all be killed!"