lock Senator Sanderson was introducing Armitage right and left
as one of his representative constituents. Armitage and he owned
adjoining ranches in Montana, and Sanderson called upon his neighbor to
stand up boldly for their state before the minions of effete monarchies.

Mrs. Sanderson had asked Armitage to return to her for a little Montana
talk, as she put it, after the first rush of their entrance was over, and
as he waited in the drawing-room for an opportunity of speaking to her,
he chatted with Franzel, an attache of the Austrian embassy, to whom
Sanderson had introduced him. Franzel was a gloomy young man with a
monocle, and he was waiting for a particular girl, who happened to be the
daughter of the Spanish Ambassador. And, this being his object, he had
chosen his position with care, near the door of the drawing-room, and
Armitage shared for the moment the advantage that lay in the Austrian's
point of view. Armitage had half expected that the Claibornes would be
present at a function as comprehensive of the higher official world as
this, and he intended asking Mrs. Sanderson if she knew them as soon as
opportunity offered. The Austrian attache proved tiresome, and Armitage
was about to drop him, when suddenly he caught sight of Shirley Claiborne
at the far end of the broad hall. Her head was turned partly toward him;
he saw her for an instant through the throng; then his eyes fell upon
Chauvenet at her side, talking with liveliest animation. He was not more
than her own height, and his profile presented the clean, sharp effect of
a cameo. The vivid outline of his dark face held Armitage's eyes; then as
Shirley passed on through an opening in the crowd her escort turned,
holding the way open for her, and Armitage met the man's gaze.

It was with an accented gravity that Armitage nodded his head to some
declaration of the melancholy attache at this moment. He had known when
he left Geneva that he had not done with Jules Chauvenet; but the man's
prompt appearance surprised Armitage. He ran over the names of the
steamers by which Chauvenet might easily have sailed from either a German
or a French port and reached Washington quite as soon as himself.
Chauvenet was in Washington, at any rate, and not only there, but
socially accepted and in the good graces of Shirley Claiborne.

The somber attache was speaking of the Japanese.

"They must be crushed--crushed," said Franzel. The two had been
conversing in French.