thing that
he would have called shyness in his daughter's demeanour as she stood
talking to the Dictator, with her large fine eyes fixed in composed gaze
upon his face. But Soame Rivers noticed a difference in her bearing; he
was not her father, and he was accustomed to watch every tone of her
speech and every movement of her eyes, and he saw that she was not
entirely herself in the company of the 'new man,' as he called Ericson;
and seeing it he felt a pang, or at least a prick, at the heart, and
sneered at himself immediately in consequence. But he edged up to Helena
just before the pairing took place for dinner, and said softly to her,
so that no one else could hear, 'You are shy to-night. Why?'--and moved
away smiling at the angry flash of her eyes and the compression of her
mouth.

Possibly the words of Rivers may have affected her more than she was
willing to admit; but she certainly was not as self-composed as usual
during that first dinner. Her wit flashed vivaciously; the Dictator
thought her brilliant, and even rather bewildering. If anyone had said
to him that Helena Langley was not absolutely at her ease with him, he
would have stared in amazement. For himself, he was not at all dismayed
by the brilliant, beautiful girl who sat next to him. The long habit of
intercourse with all kinds of people, under all kinds of conditions, had
given him the experience which enabled him to be at his ease under any
circumstances, even the most unfamiliar, and certainly talking to Helena
Langley was an experience that had no precedent in the Dictator's life.
But he talked to her readily, with great pleasure; he felt a little
surprise at her obvious willingness to talk to him and accept his
judgment upon many things; but he set this down as one of the few
agreeable conditions attendant upon being lionised, and accepted it
gratefully. 'I am the newest thing,' he thought to himself, 'and so this
child is interested in me and consequently civil to me. Probably she
will have forgotten all about me the next time we meet; in the meanwhile
she is very charming.' The Dictator had even been about to suggest to
himself that he might possibly forget all about her; but somehow this
did not seem very likely, and he dismissed it.

He did not see very much of Helena that night after the dinner. Many
people came in, and Helena was surrounded by a little court of adorers,
men of all ages and occupations, statesmen, soldiers, men of letters,