he idea of any Secretary of State
so soon forgetting the existence of the Dictator.

'Not in this case, dear girl--not in this case certainly. Sir Rupert and
Ericson are great friends; and they say Ericson is going to marry Sir
Rupert's daughter.'

'Oh, do they?' Dolores asked earnestly.

'Yes, they do; and the Gloria folk have heard of it already, I can tell
you; and in their stupid outsider sort of way they go on as if their
little twopenny-halfpenny Republic were being made an occasion for great
state alliances on the part of England.'

'What is she like?' Dolores murmured faintly. 'Is she very pretty? Is
she young?'

'I am told so,' Sarrasin answered vaguely. To him the youth or beauty of
Sir Rupert's daughter was matter of the slightest consideration.

'Told what?' Dolores asked somewhat sharply. 'That she is young and
pretty, or that she isn't?'

'Oh, that she is young and very pretty, quite a beauty they tell me; but
you know, my dear, that with Royal Princesses and very rich girls a
little beauty goes a long way.'

'It wouldn't with him,' Dolores answered emphatically.

'With whom?' Captain Sarrasin asked blankly, and Dolores saw that she
had all unwittingly put herself in an awkward position. 'I meant,' she
tried to explain, 'that I don't think his Excellency would be governed
much by a young woman's money.'

'But, my dear girl, where are we now? Did I ever say he would be?'

'Oh, no,' she replied meekly, and anxious to get back to the point of
the conversation. 'Then you think, Captain Sarrasin, that his Excellency
has enemies here in London--enemies from Gloria, I mean.'

'I shouldn't wonder in the least if he had,' Sarrasin replied
cautiously. 'I know there are some queer chaps from Gloria about in
London now. So we come to the point, dear girl, and now I answer the
question we started with. That's why I am staying in this hotel.'

Dolores drew a deep breath.

'I knew it from the first,' Dolores said. 'I was sure you had come to
watch over him.'

'That's exactly why I am here. Some of them, perhaps, will only know me
by name as a soldier of fortune, and may think that they could manage to
humbug me and get me over to their side. So they'll probably come to me
and try to talk me over, don't you see? They'll try to make me believe
that Ericson was a tyrant and a despot, don't you know; and that I ought
to go back to Gloria and help the Republic to resist the oppressor, and
so get me out of t