Part 10 (1/2)

Deliberately the Marquis, without turning Ula around, moved her to one side and, following the Prince into the pa.s.sage, he said, ”Your Highness must allow me to show you to your carriage.”

He closed the door behind him and, Ula, as she sank down in a chair, heard them walking down the pa.s.sage towards the hall.

She was still trembling and feeling as if she had pa.s.sed through a terrifying experience and had been saved from utter destruction only by the intervention of the Marquis.

She hated the Prince and feared him in a way that she had never been afraid of anyone before, not even her uncle, in the whole of her life.

She was sure that he was evil, she was sure that he personified everything that was debauched and wicked.

And yet she had no valid reason for thinking this, only an instinct that made her still tremble at the thought of him kissing her.

The Marquis came back into the room.

”How can you have been such a little fool a ” he began.

Then he saw Ula's face looking up at him and his anger seemed to evaporate as he asked, ”I realise you did not expect him. That is the truth, is it not?”

”I had a no idea he a would call on me,” Ula answered. ”I-I hated him last night a when I had to dance with him a and if you had not saved me a he would have a kissed me!”

The terror in her voice was obvious.

The Marquis walked to stand with his back to the mantelpiece.

”Forget him,” he said. ”I should have been sensible enough to refuse the Turkish Amba.s.sador's request that he should be included among my guests last night. I shall now give instructions to the servants that if he ever comes here again, they are to say that no one is at home.”

”Thank a you,” Ula whispered.

Then after a moment, as if she had thought it over, she said, ”It was a stupid of me to have been so a frightened, but I did not a know there were a men like him in the world.”

”There are unfortunately quite a number of them,” the Marquis said coldly, ”and you will have to learn to take care of yourself.”

”I-I will try,” Ula said humbly, ”but I cannot help thinking I a might have encountered somebody like him a rather than you a when I ran away.”

”Prince Hasin is not the sort of man you will meet as a general rule in anyone's house, unless you are particularly unfortunate,” the Marquis said. ”I know his reputation, and once again I can only say that I made a mistake in allowing him to come to the ball last night.”

”It was such a a wonderful ball,” Ula sighed.

”You enjoyed it?”

”More than I can ever tell you. It is something I shall always remember.”

”I hope it taught your uncle and your cousin a lesson they will never forget.”

There was a note in his voice that made Ula say involuntarily, ”No a please a don't speak a like that!”

”Why not?” the Marquis asked.

”Because it a spoils you.”

He looked at her in astonishment and she explained, ”You will think it very a presumptuous and perhaps very a impertinent of me a but you are so magnificent in a yourself, so kind and so wonderful, that it spoils a you when you are a vindictive and too petty to be a worthy of what you a really are.”

She spoke hesitatingly, stumbling a little over the words.

Then she added quickly, ”I-I am not putting it very well a but it is what I feel is a true.”

The Marquis looked at her for a long moment, then he walked to stand at the window looking out into the garden.

The gardeners and a number of servants were busy removing the Chinese lanterns from the trees and lifting up the fairy lights that had edged the paths.

He did not see them.

He was looking back into the past, when he knew he had been a very different person from the one he was at the moment.

Then he had been young and idealistic, and had believed, as his mother had taught him, that in his position he had to set an example of everything that was fine and n.o.ble to those who served and looked up to him.

He wondered now if he had lost that ideal, when behind him he heard a very small voice ask, ”Y-you are not a angry with a me?”

He turned around.

Ula was looking at him somewhat piteously and he realised that she was afraid of what she had just said.

”I am not angry,” he said quietly, ”and I have an uncomfortable feeling that you are right.”

chapter five.

Ula awoke with a feeling of happiness.

She had gone to bed after a quiet dinner with the d.u.c.h.ess and the Marquis and they had laughed a great deal as they talked over everything that had happened the night before.

There were so many things to amuse them.

One of the guests had held a wine gla.s.s under the fountain spraying perfume and said, ”I am sure this wine is delicious!”

Then, as he took a large gulp from the gla.s.s, he had not known whether to spit it out or to swallow it!

There were some very amusing incidents in the garden when, trying to catch the balloons that were floating down from the top of the house, several ladies and gentlemen had fallen into the flowerbeds and a lady's gown had been set on fire by one of the fairy lights.

It was very quickly extinguished and only scorched a frill of her gown, but she screamed and made enough noise as if she had been burned at the stake!

They also laughed over the many compliments the Marquis had received. The d.u.c.h.ess had found many of her friends with debutante daughters had tried to be congratulatory about the magnificence of the ball, but found it difficult.

When dinner was over the d.u.c.h.ess said, ”I have never enjoyed your company more, Drogo, or known you in better form, but now, unfortunately, as I am so old, I must retire to my bed.”

”Of course you must rest,” the Marquis said, ”for I believe there is another ball tomorrow night at which Ula must consolidate her position as a great beauty.”