uld not talk out so openly as that,' Hamilton said to
himself. 'How do we know who some of these people are?'

'Rather an indiscreet person, your friend the Dictator,' Soame Rivers
said to Mrs. Sarrasin. 'How can he know that some of these people here
may not be in sympathy with Orizaba, and may not send out a telegram to
let people know there that he has arranged for a descent upon the shores
of Gloria? Gad! I don't wonder that the Gloria people kicked him out, if
that is his notion of statesmanship.

'The Gloria people, as a people, adore him, sir,' Mrs. Sarrasin sternly
observed.

'Odd way they have of showing it,' Rivers replied.

'We, in this country, have driven out kings,' Mrs. Sarrasin said, 'and
have taken them back and set them on their thrones again.'

'Some of them we have not taken back, Mrs. Sarrasin.'

'We may yet--or some of their descendants.'

Mrs. Sarrasin became, for the moment, and out of a pure spirit of
contradiction, a devoted adherent of the Stuarts and a wearer of the
Rebel Rose.

'Oh, I say, this is becoming treasonable, Mrs. Sarrasin. Do have some
consideration for me--the private secretary of a Minister of State.'

'I have great consideration for you, Mr. Rivers; I bear in mind that you
do not mean half what you say.'

'But don't you really think,' he asked in a low tone, 'that your
Dictator was just a little indiscreet when he talked so openly about his
plans?'

'He is very well able to judge of his own affairs, I should think, and
probably he feels sure'--and she made this a sort of direct stab at
Rivers--'that in the house of Sir Rupert Langley he is among friends.'

Rivers was only amused, not in the least disconcerted.

'But these Americans, now--who knows anything about them? Don't all
Americans write for newspapers? and why might not these fellows
telegraph the news to the _New York Herald_ or the _New York Tribune_,
or some such paper, and so spread it all over the world, and send an
Orizaba ironclad or two to look out for the returning Dictator?'

'I don't know them,' Mrs. Sarrasin answered, 'but my brother-in-law
does, and I believe they are merely scientific men, and don't know or
care anything about politics--even in their own country.'

Miss Paulo talked a good deal with Professor Flick. Mr. Copping sat on
her other side, and she had tried to exchange a word or two now and then
with him, but she failed in drawing out any ready response, and so she
devoted all h