the Duchess said encouraged. 'Only I
can't catch his eye--he is absorbed in your daughter, and a very odd
sort of man he would be if he were not absorbed in her.'

'You look at him long enough and keenly enough, and he will be sure very
soon to feel that your eyes are on him.'

'You believe in that theory of eyes commanding eyes?'

'Well, I have noticed that it generally works out correctly.'

'But Miss Langley has such divine eyes, and she is commanding him now. I
fear I may as well give up. Oh!' For at that moment Ericson, at a word
from Helena, who saw that the Duchess was gazing at them, suddenly
looked up and caught the beaming eyes of the pretty and sprightly young
American woman who had become the wife of a great English Duke.

'The Duchess wants to ask you a question,' Sir Rupert said to Ericson,
'and she hopes you won't think her rude or presuming. I have ventured to
say that I am sure you will not think her anything of the kind.'

'You can always speak for me, Sir Rupert, and never with more certainty
than just now, and to the Duchess.'

'Well,' the Duchess said with a pretty little blush, as she found all
the eyes at the table fixed on her, including those that were covered by
Professor Flick's moony spectacles, 'I have been reading all sorts of
rumours about you, Mr. Ericson.'

Ericson quailed for a moment. 'She can't mean _that_,' he thought. 'She
can't mean to bring up the marriage question here at Sir Rupert's own
table, and in the ears of Sir Rupert's daughter! No,' he suddenly
consoled himself, 'she is too kind and sweet--she would never do
_that_'--and he did the Duchess only justice. She had no such thought in
her mind.

'Are you really going to risk your life by trying to recover your
Republic? Are you going to be so rash?'

Ericson was not embarrassed in the least.

'I am not ambitious to recover the Republic, Duchess,' he answered
calmly--'if the Republic can get on without me. But if the Republic
should be in danger--then, of course, I know where my place ought to
be.'

'Just what I told you, Duchess,' Sir Rupert said, rather triumphant with
himself.

Helena sent a devoted glance at her hero, and then let her eyes droop.

'Well, I must not ask any indiscreet questions,' the Duchess said; 'and
besides, I know that if I did ask them you would not answer them. But
are you prepared for events? Is that indiscreet!'

'Oh, no; not in the least. I am perfectly prepared.'

'I wish he wo