The Prince knew all that. A couple of days after meeting Nellie in Anseremme he had written to a certain Reverend Thomas Clayton, who lived in Bayswater, and had only that morning received a long letter bearing the Stamford postmark.

It was on account of this letter that he went out after luncheon in the car along the Rue Royale, and down the Boulevard Botanique, to the Grand Hotel on the Boulevard d'Ans.p.a.ch.

He found Nellie alone in the big _salon_, reading an English paper. On seeing him the girl flushed slightly and jumped to her feet, surprised that he should call unexpectedly.

"Miss Northover!" he exclaimed, raising his motor-cap, "I've called to take you all for a little run this afternoon--if you can come. I have the car outside."

"I'm sure it's awfully kind of you, Prince," the girl replied with some confusion. "I--well, I don't know what to say. Father and mother are out."

"Ah!" he laughed; "and of course you cannot come with me alone. It is against your English ideas of _les convenances_--eh?"

She laughed in chorus, afterwards saying:

"I expect them back in half an hour."

"Oh, then, I'll wait," he exclaimed, and taking off his motor-coat, he seated himself in a chair and began to chat with her, asking what sights of Brussels she had seen, at the same time being filled with admiration at her fresh sweetness and _chic_. They were alone in the room, and he found an indescribable charm in her almost childlike face and girlish chatter. She was so unlike the artificial women of cosmopolitan society who were his friends.

Yes. He was deeply in love with her, and by her manner towards him he could not fail to notice that his affection was reciprocated.

Presently her parents appeared. They had noticed the big cream-coloured car with the chauffeur standing outside, and at once a flutter had run through both their hearts, knowing that the august visitor had arrived to call upon them.

Northover was full of apologies, but the Prince cut them short, and within a quarter of an hour they were all in the car and on the road to that goal of every British tourist, the battlefield of Waterloo. The autumn afternoon was perfect. The leaves had scarcely begun to turn, and the sun so hot that it might still have been August.

Nellie's father was just as proud of the Prince's acquaintance as she was herself, while Mrs Northover was filled with pleasurable antic.i.p.ations of going back to quiet, old-world Stamford--a place where nothing ever happens--and referring, in the hearing of her own tea-drinking circle, to "my friend Prince Albert."

A week pa.s.sed. Mr and Mrs Northover could not fail to notice how constantly the Prince was in Nellie's society.

Only once, however, did her father mention it to his wife, and then in confidence.

"Nellie seems much struck by the Prince, don't you think? And I'm sure he admires her. He's such a good fellow. I like him. I suppose it's a mere harmless flirtation--and it amuses them both."

"Fancy, if she became Princess of Hesse-Holstein, James!"

But James Northover only grunted dubiously. He was ignorant of the truth; ignorant of the fact that on the previous night, while they had been taking a stroll along the boulevard after dinner, the Prince, who had been walking with Nellie, had actually whispered to her a declaration of love.

It had all been done so secretly. The pair had been following a little distance behind her worthy parents, and in the star-lit night he had pressed her hand. He had told her hurriedly, whispering low, how fondly he had loved her from the very first moment they had met. How devoted he was to her, and declaring that no woman had ever touched the chord of love in his heart as she had done.

"To-morrow, dearest, we shall part," he whispered; "but before we do so will you not give me one word of hope--hope that you may some day be mine! Tell me, can you ever reciprocate my love?" he whispered in deep earnestness, as he bent to her, still holding her little hand in his strong grip as they walked.

For a few moments she was silent; her dimpled chin sank upon her breast.

He felt her quivering with emotion, and as the light of a gas-lamp fell across her beautiful face he saw tears in her eyes.

She turned to him and lifted her gaze to his. Then he knew the truth without her spoken word. She was his--his own!

"We will keep our secret, dearest," he said presently. "No one must know. For family reasons it must not yet leak out. Think how lonely I shall be at this hour to-morrow--when you have left!"

"And I also," she sobbed. "You know--you must have seen--that I love you!"

At that moment her mother turned to look back, and consequently they both instantly a.s.sumed an att.i.tude of utter unconcern. And next afternoon when he saw the three off from the Gare du Nord by the Harwich service, neither the estimable Northover, nor his rather obese spouse, had the slightest idea of the true secret of the two young hearts.

Nellie grasped her lover's hand in adieu. Their eyes met for a single instant, and it was all-sufficient. Each trusted the other implicitly.

It was surely a charming love-idyll between prince and school-girl.

His Highness remained in Brussels for about three weeks, then crossed to London. He stayed at the Carlton, where, on the night of his arrival, he was visited by the rather ruddy-faced jovial-looking clergyman, the Reverend Thomas Clayton.

It was Charles who announced him, saying in an abrupt manner:

"The Parson's called, your Highness."

"Show him in," was the Prince's reply. "I was expecting him."

The greeting between Prince Albert and his old clerical friend was hearty, and the two men spent a couple of hours over whisky and sodas and cigarettes, chatting confidentially.

"You're in love with her, Prince!" laughed his reverend friend.

"Yes, I really and honestly believe I am," the other admitted, "and especially so, after your report."

"My inquiries were perfectly satisfactory," the clergyman said.

"I want to have an excuse for going up to Stamford, but don't see well how it can be managed," remarked the Prince pensively, between whiffs of his cigarette.

"With my a.s.sistance it might, my dear boy," replied the Reverend Thomas.

"It wants a little thinking over. You're a prince, remember."

"Yes," sighed the other wearily. "That's just the confounded difficulty. I wonder what the world would say if they knew my secret?"

"Say?" and the clergyman pulled a wry face. "Why bother about what the world thinks? I never do."

"Yes. But you're a parson, and a parson can do practically just what he likes."

"As long as he's popular with his parishioners."

And it was not till near midnight, after a dainty snack of supper, served in the Prince's sitting-room, that the pair parted.

A fortnight later Mr James Northover was agreeably impressed to receive a letter from the Prince stating that a great friend of his, the Rev Thomas Clayton, of St Ethelburga's, Bayswater, was staying in Stamford, convalescent after an illness, and that he was coming to visit him.

The Northover household was thrown into instant confusion. Its head was for inviting the Prince to stay with them, but Mrs Northover and Nellie both declared that he would be far more comfortable at the Stamford Hotel, or at the "George." Besides, he was a prince, and Alice, the cook, could not possibly do things as was his Highness's habit to have them done. So a telegram was sent to the Carlton saying that the Northovers were most delighted at the prospect of seeing the Prince again.

Next day his Highness arrived in the big cream-coloured car at the Stamford Hotel, causing great excitement in the town. Charles had come down by the morning train and engaged rooms for his master, and within half an hour of the Prince's arrival the worthy mayor called and left his card.

The Prince's first visit, however, was to his old friend, the Rev Thos. Clayton, whom he found in rather shabby apartments in Rock Terrace seated in an armchair, looking very pale, and quite unlike his usual self.

"I'm sure it's awfully good of you to become an invalid on my account?"

exclaimed the Prince the moment they were alone. "However do you pa.s.s your days in this sleepy hollow?"

"By study, my dear boy! Study's a grand thing! See!" And he exhibited a big dry-as-dust volume on "The Extinct Civilisations of Africa."

He remained an hour, and then, remounting into the car, drove out along the Tinwell Road, where, half a mile from the town, Mr Northover's comfortable, red-brick villa was situated. He found the whole family a.s.sembled to welcome him--as they had, indeed, been a.s.sembled in eager expectation for the past four hours.