a leaf!"

"The best that I could say!--I don't know that. I feel like a leaf in
the wind! I did not understand--but I was afraid for you. It is done,
but I prefer to tell the truth!"

"I prefer it for you," said Rand. "To-night was mere unluckiness. And he
suspected nothing?"

"He went without knowing who was in the dining-room. Lewis, what is
there to suspect?"

He stood looking down upon her with a glow in his dark eyes and an
unwonted red in his cheek. "Suspect? There is nothing to suspect. But to
expect--there might be expectations, my Queen!"

"As long as you live you are my King" she said. "To-night I am afraid
for my King. I do not like Colonel Burr!"

"I am sorry for that. He is said to be a favourite with women."

"Lewis!" she cried, "what does he want with you? Tell me!"

So appealing was her voice, so urgent the touch of her hand, that with a
start Rand awoke from his visions to the fact of her emotion. His eye
was hawklike, and his intuition unfailing. "What did Ludwell Cary say to
you?" he demanded.

She took her scarf from the floor, wound her hands in it, and clasped
them tightly before her. "When I told him,--Mammy Chloe let him
in,--when I told him that you were busy with your client, he thought no
more of it. And then we talked of Fontenoy, and he read me a letter from
Uncle Edward. Much of the letter was about Colonel Burr, and--and
suspicions that were aroused. Uncle Edward called him a traitor and a
maker of traitors. That is an ugly name, is it not? Ludwell Cary did not
think the rumour false. He said that if he were Mr. Jefferson, he would
arrest Colonel Burr. He, also, called him traitor. I can tell you what
he said. He said, 'But Mr. Jefferson will temporize, and Burr will make
his dash for a throne. Well! he is neither Caesar nor Buonaparte; he is
only Aaron Burr. The danger is that in all the motley he is enlisting
there may be a Buonaparte. Then farewell to this poor schemer and any
delusions he may yet nourish as to a peaceful, federated West! War and
brazen clamour and the yelling eagles of a conqueror!' That is what he
said."

There was a silence, then Rand spoke in a curious voice, "Saul among the
prophets! In the future, let us have less of Ludwell Cary."

"Lewis, why did Colonel Burr come here to-night?"

Rand turned from the fire and began to pace the room, head bent and hand
at mouth, thinking rapidly. His wife raised her hands, still wrapped in
the silver scarf, to he