"Ah!" he sighed despondently. "Am I correct, then, in suspecting that you already have a lover?" "A lover? Whom do you mean?" "That tall, fair-haired, mysterious man who, during the past week, has been so interested in your movements. Have you not noticed him? He's staying at the hotel. I've seen him twenty times at least, and it is only too apparent that he admires you." "I've never even seen him," she exclaimed in surprise. "You must point him out to me. I don't like mysterious men." "I'm not mysterious, am I?" asked the Prince, laughing, and again raising her hand to his lips tenderly. "Will you not answer my question? Do you think you can love me sufficiently--sufficiently to become my wife?" "But--but all this is so sudden, Prince. I--I--" "Can you love me?" he interrupted. For answer she bent her head. Next moment his lips met hers in a hot passionate caress. And thus did their hearts beat in unison. Before they rose from the seat Mary Jesup had promised to become Princess of Hesse-Holstein. Next morning, the happy girl told her mother the gratifying news, and when Mrs Jesup entered the Prince's private _salon_ his Highness asked her, at least for the present, to keep their engagement secret. That day the Prince was occupied by a quantity of correspondence, but the future Princess, after a tender kiss upon her white brow, went out in the car with her mother as far as Bognor. Two hours later the Prince sent a telegram to the Rev Thomas Clayton, despatched Charles post-haste to London by the Pullman express, and then went out for a stroll along King's Road. He was one of the happiest men in all the world. Not until dinner did he again meet Mrs Jesup and her daughter. After describing what an excellent run they had had, the millionaire's wife said: "Oh, Mary has been telling me something about a mysterious fair-haired man whom you say has been watching her." "Yes," replied his Highness. "He's been hanging about for some days. I fancy he's no good--one of those fellows who live in hotels on the look-out for pigeons." "What we call in America a crook--eh?" "Exactly. At least that's my opinion," he declared in confidence. Mrs Jesup and her daughter appeared both very uneasy, a circumstance which the Prince did not fail to notice. They went up to his _salon_ where they had coffee, and then retired early. Half an hour later, while his Highness was lazily enjoying one of his brown "Petroffs," the millionaire's wife, with blanched face, burst into the room crying: