It had leaked out, however, as such things are over-apt to do, that the Azores were but a pretext, a port of call on the way to the States; that “Mr. Harrington” was in reality an American, and that his post of secretary had not been adopted for the sake of obtaining a remunerative position, since his pockets were royally filled, as was testified by the munificence of his tips to every man-jack of the crew and engine-room. He had made himself well liked, too, and had gained the brevet title of a “real gentleman” among them. Also he was a splendid sailor, visibly used to a pleasing existence on a yacht of extreme luxuriousness. Once or twice the mate himself had heard voices raised to the pitch of anger in the saloon, when keeping his midnight watch on deck, and had greatly wondered, but reported nothing of what he had discovered. Once, as a matter of fact, he had unwillingly caught a sentence of the Princess: “I will not go with you to America! We must find some other place!” And the answer in “Harrington’s” lower tones: “I don’t care where we go. _You_ must decide. You know very well that now I am utterly in your hands.” A short sojourn at the Azores, spent mostly on the yacht, and then orders to steam back again to Europe. Célèste, her Highness’s French maid, had chatted about Norway to one of the quartermasters who was a Norwegian, and had let fall that her mistress, already sickened of sub-tropical landscapes, would spend the end of the summer in the Fjords. There was no longer peace on board, however. Laurence scowled savagely during meal-times, as was asserted by the head steward and his under-strappers. “Mr. Harrington” looked grim and worried by turns, and the admirably trained, carefully selected crew gossiped between themselves, just as if they had been the most ordinary passenger-steamer lot; only their faces remained aristocratically wooden, and their tongues reduced to pianissimo expressions. On nearing Europe the _Wild Rose_ had encountered dirty weather of the midsummer kind, the most trying for seafarers to bear, and the Princess had signified to her captain that her next point of destination would be Trondhjem. Then suddenly he had been summoned to her “study” and had received orders not to go by way of the English Channel.