“But the yacht!” Maimie reminded her. “We’ll have a lovely time these weeks, and it’ll be real elegant to appear among your new relations in your own ship.” “Well, I don’t know,” said Félicia doubtfully. As delicately as he could, the Grand-Duke had suggested that pending the decision of the Emperor and the Prince of Arragon on her claim, it would be well for her to withdraw herself to a certain extent from the public eye. A sojourn in some quiet mountain village, whither her fame as an American heiress would not precede her, and where her footsteps would not be dogged by reporters, would best suit the views of her father’s august relations. Maimie, reading between the lines of his speech, saw that some rumour of the Carnival proceedings and other doings of the kind had reached him, and forestalled Félicia’s indignant refusal by suggesting that she should send for the Bluebird, the beautiful steam-yacht which Mr Steinherz had designed and constructed for himself, and sailed in all the Western seas, so as to take a short cruise in the Mediterranean. The idea did not displease Félicia, and to the Grand-Duke it came as such an evident relief that she could not refuse to adopt it, especially when she found the yacht could not reach Nice before Mid-Lent, which would enable her to take part in the Battle of Flowers and other festivities of the occasion. But there were details in connection with the proposed cruise which still rankled in her mind, and again she turned angrily upon Maimie. “And I do think, Maimie Logan, you might have stood by me, so’s we wouldn’t have an old school-ma’am trail us along everywhere. It makes me real mad to be shepherded around that way.” This referred to a proposal of the Grand-Duke’s that the chaperon on board the Bluebird should not be Mrs van Zyl, but a lady of the Pannonian Court, who might give the two girls various useful hints in case of a change in their position. Félicia, who had delightful dreams of fluttering the Imperial dovecotes by appearing among her august relations as a frank and unashamed American, had been horrified to hear Maimie acquiesce in the suggestion. In ordinary society anywhere Maimie felt that she could hold her own and guide Félicia, but on these lofty heights she was at fault, and she had the good sense to see it. Félicia was more difficult to manage than she had expected, but at last she succeeded in making her see that any _faux pas_ on her first introduction would produce a bad impression and alienate King Michael, and she yielded with a poor enough grace. “But you save so much time getting at things on the voyage,” Maimie urged now. “How does that make up, when I wanted to take a real nice party on board, and have a good time? It’s nothing but a snub to poor Sadie, I say.”