English roses, you know. I've always loved them, too, even when they
were thorny!"

He pulled absently at a fern growing near, while, suddenly, for no
particular reason, the color glowed again in the cheeks of the little
art teacher. She smiled, half unwillingly.

"But don't pull up the wild flowers here," she warned him, "You'll have
the forester after you! When did you get back?" she added. "Where have
you been so long?" burned on her lips, but she scorned to ask it.

"About an hour ago," he replied amiably. "The boat was late."

"I was beginning to think you'd given up coming at all." She could not
keep it back. "The duke never bothered to, you know."

But this blow, like the first, failed to reach any vulnerable spot.
Blair did not flinch.

"No, naturally he didn't! He was English, and you can't depend upon the
English, I've discovered. But there's not the slightest reason for
linking me up with him. The princess never ran away now, did she? And I
- " He paused, then without looking at her he began again.

"Seriously, I'm sorry if I seemed to be deserting. I - well, honestly, I
didn't know what else to do. You suggested it yourself, you remember!
And I'd promised my father to look after some business for him in Los
Angeles while I was out here. You see, he - our family, have lived in
the East for a long time now, but we used to own pretty much all of Los
Angeles county some three centuries ago, when the Spanish were here, and