His Hour

"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!"