She further recognised that the circumstances were extraordinary,
not to say equivocal, and that she herself occupied a distinctly
peculiar position.
She had accepted the charge of Miss Zaidie from her Uncle Russell for a
consideration counted partly by social advantages and partly by dollars.
In the most perfect innocence she had permitted not only her charge but
herself to be abducted--for, after all, that was what it came to--from
the deck of an American liner, and carried, not only beyond the clouds,
but also beyond the reach of human law, both criminal and conventional.
Inwardly she was simply fuming with rage. As she said afterwards, she
felt just like a bottled volcano which would like to go off and daren't.
About two minutes of somewhat surcharged silence passed. Mrs. Van
Stuyler sipped her coffee in ostentatiously small sips. Lord Redgrave
took his in slower and longer ones, and helped himself to bread and
butter. Miss Zaidie appeared perfectly contented with her contemplation
of the clouds.
CHAPTER II
At length Mrs. Van Stuyler, being a woman of large experience and some
social deftness, recognised that a change of subject was the easiest way
of retreat out of a rather difficult situation. So she put her cup down,
leant back in her chair, and, looking straight into Lord Redgrave's
eyes, she said with purely feminine irrelevance:
"I suppose you know, Lord Redgrave, that, when we left, the machine
which we call in America Manhood Suffrage--which, of course, simply
means the selection of a government by counting noses which may or may
not have brains above them--was what some of our orators would call in
full blast.
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