If he chose to be elusive, no power on earth
could capture him.
But she had a strong feeling that he would not seek to elude her wholly.
He might seem to trifle, as a monkey swinging idly from bough to bough,
but he had an end in view, and ultimately he would reach that end,
however circuitous the route.
He surprised her eventually by the suddenness with which he pounced upon
it. He had turned the talk upon the subject of his new yacht, and very
abruptly he announced his intention of going round the world in her.
"Not alone?" she said, and then would have checked the words lest they
should seem to ask too much.
But he answered her without a pause. "Yes, alone. And if I don't come
back, Bunny can marry Toby and reign here in my stead. That is, if he
isn't an infernal fool. If he is, then Toby can reign here alone--with
you and Jake to take care of her."
"But, Charlie, why--why?" The words leapt from Maud in spite of her.
He frowned at her whimsically. "They've always cared for one another.
Don't you know it? It's true she put me in a shrine and worshipped me for
a time, but I couldn't live up to it. _Figurez-vous, ma chere!_ Myself--a
marble saint!"
"You never understood her," Maud said.
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