My Friend the Chauffeur

six o'clock, and we hadn't gone to bed till after one; but I knew I couldn't sleep any more, a

was an hour and a half to spare. I wondered whether I should wake Maida, and get her to go with me, but somehow I wasn't in the mood for Maida. I was afraid that, being in a monastery, she would be thinking of her precious Sisterhood and wanting to hurry back as fa

gh white crags and then regretting it afterwards. Mamma gets cross with her too, when she's particularly exalted, but we both love her dearly; and we ought to, for she's always doing something sweet for us. Only she's a

out into the long corridor, and got lost se

pay hundreds of dollars for in America. Staring up at the house I thought a window-shutter moved; but I didn't attach any importance to that until, aft

hat he wouldn't notice me in my grey dress among the trees. I don't believe the Prince's best friends would call him an early morning man. He's the kind that ough

seventeen to thirteen. When the Prince found me. I should be sitting on the grass playing with dandelions and saying.

e said "Good-morning" (so nicely that I thought he must have had a cra

to see His Highness become His Lowness, and to tell Sir Ralph Moray afterwards, but just as I was on the point of making a spring, he remarked that he had seen me come out, and followe

unless it is to get away from me," said the Prince, "and I should be sorry to

ith my best twelve-and-a

e your Papa," replied the Prince, "so y

" I asked, w

nds on how old y

unless you are old enough to be my Pap

hirty," sai

manach de Gotha on the table of our ho

hey find out that you know just how far over thirty they've really gone. "But I

much as anything," s

sy! Doi

dolls," I

e Prince, with a good imitation of a sigh

d. "But then, if I had, she wou

harming as she is. She must hav

sk me about Mamma's marriage?" I threw at him. "Because

rince, in a hurry. "I cam

why Prince Dalmar-Kalm had dashed on his clothes at sight of me and come into the garden on an empty stomach. He had thought, if he could get me all alone for half an hour (which he'd often tried to do and never succeeded) he could f

re fun to be had in playing with him than with dolls," I said to myself, "if I set about it in the right way. But what is the right way? I can't be bothered having him for my dol

ay about me that can't wai

ion of your couriers, yet they put themselves forward, as if on a

tter to be an Austrian prince, or an English b

," sneered

Burke the very day I found you were

onet. That is nothing

' is only in one. Besides, Austrians

iss Destrey sai

rt her feelings. Maida said she felt more at home with a plain mi

ider him

s, we a

how she met them, but from one or two things that have been dropped, I feel sure they are in he

you what she says, if you

far. Will you not let me be your friend, Miss Beechy, and come to me for advice? I should be delighted to give it, for you know what an interest I take in all connected with you. Ther

we establish, exactly?" I asked. "Y

ur Papa, I sh

nd the age you are now, Ma

hough some step-relationships are delightful. But your Mamma is too charming-you are

erhaps knew; but there are some th

while I pruned and prismed. "With her great fortune, and no one to guard her, sh

rtune, and so get rid of the b

d. "Surely she is more wis

nt it all yet,

he may throw away your fortune as well as her own; or did

tle something left, no matt

so fascinating a woman as your Mamma, I would have put into my will a clause that, if she married aga

d. "I never heard that he objected to Mamma marryin

second husband," said the Prince, very p

e will,"

rted s

s Beechy, must watch over your dear Mamma and rescue her from fortune hunters. I will help. And I will protect you, also. As for Miss Destrey,

nking again of Job and all the other really solemn ch

chy to big Beechy. "No more vacillating. He'll come straight to business." And promising myself some fun, I got up from the bench so cautiou

d warn your Mamma to be on hers, with those two adventurers. Perhaps, also, you had better warn Miss Destrey. Who knows how unscrupulous the p

le too, maybe," said I. "By the

od marching order by the time it is wanted, as my chauffeur was to rise at four, knock up a mechanic at some shop in the village, and make the new change-

mouth of a sort of stucco tunnel which led to the door there was Joseph himself-a piteous, dishevell

off a blow. "What has happened? Have you burnt my autom

w what I am like, unless it is a wreck, in which case I resemble your automobile. As you left her last night, so she is now, and so she is likely to remain, unless the gentlemen

as a mechanic!"

I am not and shall not be this side of Parad

the Prince, "if you wish to go to your Mamma

excuse, so I skipped into the house, and almost telescoped (as they say o

said she had been asking if we could have breakfast in the garden. The monk had given his consent, an

a, "but we didn't hear a sound from your room, so we decided n

and ran off to help Mam

o her, and she looked at me sharply. "Don't forget that you're a litt

" said I. "Even when I was seve

u say about

things about you. You can have h

me. Most foreigners there were Germans, which made one think of beer and sausages. I do wonder what standing an Austrian Prince would

les?" I asked sweetly, but Mamma only simpered, and as a sel

hy," she said. "It is a step, being

rowns you have, the m

t would have been the good of coming to Europe? And if one gets opportunities, it wou

at the Opportunities, who were discoursing earnestly with Joseph. "Of course,

el

y, and whichever si

es

Barry

s no title! I might as we

think he'd be the hardes

about

t wait till we've travelled a little further, and see

Mamma, so forlornly that I was sorry-for a whole minute-that I'd been born wi