They went away together, and Carlton moved cautiously towards the spot
where the Princess was sitting. He made a long and roundabout detour
as he did so, in order to keep himself behind her. He did not mean to
come so near that she would see him, but he took a certain satisfaction
in looking at her when she was alone, though her loneliness was only a
matter of the moment, and though he knew that her people were within a
hundred yards of her. He was in consequence somewhat annoyed and
surprised to see another young man dodging in and out among the pillars
of the Parthenon immediately ahead of him, and to find that this young
man also had his attention centred on the young girl, who sat
unconsciously sketching in the foreground.
"Now what the devil can he want?" muttered Carlton, his imagination
taking alarm at once. "If it would only prove to be some one who meant
harm to her," he thought--"a brigand, or a beggar, who might be
obligingly insolent, or even a tipsy man, what a chance it would afford
for heroic action!"
With this hope he moved forward quickly but silently, hoping that the
stranger might prove even to be an anarchist with a grudge against
royalty. And as he advanced he had the satisfaction of seeing the
Princess glance over her shoulder, and, observing the man, rise and
walk quickly away towards the edge of the rock. There she seated
herself with her face towards the city, and with her back firmly set
against her pursuer.
"He is annoying her!" exclaimed Carlton, delightedly, as he hurried
forward. "It looks as though my chance had come at last." But as he
approached the stranger he saw, to his great disappointment, that he
had nothing more serious to deal with than one of the international
army of amateur photographers, who had been stalking the Princess as a
hunter follows an elk, or as he would have stalked a race-horse or a
prominent politician, or a Lord Mayor's show, everything being fish
that came within the focus of his camera. A helpless statue and an
equally helpless young girl were both good subjects and at his mercy.
He was bending over, with an anxious expression of countenance, and
focussing his camera on the back of the Princess Aline, when Carlton
approached from the rear. As the young man put his finger on the
button of the camera, Carlton jogged his arm with his elbow, and pushed
the enthusiastic tourist to one side.
"Say," exclaimed that individual, "look where you're going, will you?
You spoiled that plate."
"I'll spoil your camera if you annoy that young lady any longer," said
Carlton, in a low voice.
The photographer was rapidly rewinding his roll, and the fire of
pursuit was still in his eye.
"She's a Princess," he explained, in an excited whisper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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