Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/90

80 the first nobleman I had ever clapped eyes on, though I knew the Count de Pannroff well enough in Thursday Island. But then foreign Counts ought not to reckon, perhaps.

"But you don't mean to tell me," I said at length, "that you've got no friends? Don't you ever see anyone at all?"

"No, I am not allowed to. My father thinks it better not. And as he does not wish it, of course I have nothing left me but to obey. I must own, however, I should like to see the world—to go a long voyage to Australia, for instance."

"But how do you put in your time? You must have a very dull life of it."

"Oh, no! You see I have never known anything else, and then I have always the future to look forward to. When I am twenty-one, you see, I shall take my seat in the Lords, and be my own master. As it is now I bathe every morning. I have my yacht, I ride about the park, I have my studies, and I have a tutor who tells me wonderful stories of the world."

"Oh, he's been about, has he?"

"Dear, yes! He was a missionary in the South Sea Islands, and has seen some very stirring adventures."

"A missionary in the South Seas, eh? Perhaps I know him."

"Were you ever in those seas?"

"Just a bit, I reckon. Why, I've spent almost all my life there."

"Were you a missionary?"

"You bet not. The missionaries and my friends don't cotton to one another, and you can put your money on that!"