up before him and gave him pause. He could not play upon that stolen
glance or tease her curiosity in respect to it. If this were a ship
flirtation, it might be well enough; but the very sweetness and
open-heartedness of her youth shielded her. It seemed to him in that
moment a contemptible and unpardonable thing that he had followed
her about--and caught her, there at Paris, in an exalted mood, to which
she had been wrought by the moving incidents of war.

"I was in Paris during the exhibition," he said quietly. "Ormsby, the
American painter--the man who did the _High Tide at Gettysburg_--is an
acquaintance of mine."

"Oh!"

It was Ormsby's painting that had particularly captivated Shirley. She
had returned to it day after day; and the thought that Armitage had taken
advantage of her deep interest in Pickett's charging gray line was
annoying, and she abruptly changed the subject.

Shirley had speculated much as to the meaning of Armitage's remark at the
carriage door in Geneva--that he expected the slayer of the old Austrian
prime minister to pass that way. Armitage had not referred to the crime
in any way in his talks with her on the _King Edward_; their
conversations had been pitched usually in a light and frivolous key, or
if one were disposed to be serious the other responded in a note of
levity.

"We're all imperialists at heart," said Shirley, referring to a talk
between them earlier in the day. "We Americans are hungry for empire;
we're simply waiting for the man on horseback to gallop down Broadway and
up Fifth Avenue with a troop of cavalry at his heels and proclaim the new
dispensation."

"And before he'd gone a block a big Irish policeman would arrest him for
disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace, or for giving a show without
a license, and the republic would continue to do business at the old
stand."

"No; the police would have been bribed in advance, and would deliver the
keys of the city to the new emperor at the door of St. Patrick's
Cathedral, and his majesty would go to Sherry's for luncheon, and sign a
few decrees, and order the guillotine set up in Union Square. Do you
follow me, Mr. Armitage?"

"Yes; to the very steps of the guillotine, Miss Claiborne. But the
looting of the temples and the plundering of banks--if the thing is bound
to be--I should like to share in the general joy. But I have an idea,
Miss Claiborne," he exclaimed, as though with inspiration.

"Yes--you have an idea