"Really!" she exclaimed. "How interesting! Now I am glad I met you. I had no idea you were that, of all things. You seemed--" She checked herself. "But tell me, how did you begin? Tommy Dallas is keen on your sort. Did he ever--ever back you, I believe he calls it--in a fight?" The new trend speedily had become distasteful to Armitage, who inwardly was floundering for a method of escape from the predicament into which his folly had led him. He had no wish to pose as a freak in her eyes. Still, no solution offered itself. "No," he said at length, "he never backed me. As a matter of fact, I am more of a physical instructor, now." "Oh," she said, disappointedly, "I was going to gloat over Tommy. Physical instructor! Do you know father is looking for one for my two kid brothers? Why don't you apply?" "Thanks," said Armitage, a bit ungraciously, "perhaps I shall." Plainly the girl's interest in him was fast waning. Extremely chapfallen and deeply disgusted with himself, Armitage bowed, and, muttering something about looking after his luggage, withdrew. CHAPTER III PRINCE VASSILI KOLTSOFF When Miss Wellington entered the cabin she found her mother in the same position in which she had left her, but her eyes were open, looking straight at the girl. "Mother, I never knew you to do anything quite so _bourgeois_ before." There was a gleam of mischief in her eyes. "Sleeping in a public place! You weren't sleeping, were you?" "No, I was not," said her mother. "I have been thinking, planning." "Oh, Prince Koltsoff!" "Yes." Mrs. Wellington raised her hand languidly to her face. "He wrote he was coming to us this afternoon, direct from the Russian ambassador's at Bar Harbor. Did he not?" "Yes, unless Miss Hatch was mistaken in what she said the other day." "Miss Hatch," said the elder woman, "is one of the few secretaries I ever had who does not make mistakes. However, that is neither here nor there. Prince Koltsoff has been in Newport for a week." "A week! The idea! Where? Not with the Van Antwerps?" Miss Wellington's eyes blazed with interest. "No, not with any one that I was able to discover. But Clarie Pembroke, of the British legation, was driving from the Reading Room to the yacht club with your father the other day. He told me he was certain he saw Koltsoff standing on a side street near the Aquidneck." "Why on earth did n't you tell me before?" cried the daughter. "What a delightful mystery!" She smiled with mischief. "Do you suppose after all he is some no-account? You know Russian princes are as numerous as Russian bears; they can be as great bounders and as indigent as Italian counts--"