d windows and only by a gleam through the transom above
the door could the closest observer have discovered that it was
inhabited.

A single wayfarer--the neighborhood boasted but few pedestrians after
dark--was approaching. As he drew nearer the group about the King he
slackened his pace. Probably actuated by some slight natural curiosity
aroused by the unaccustomed sight of many men alighting from cabs before
a mansion traditionally, and apparently, empty, he could be excused for
gazing inquiringly at each of the party in turn. Accident may have made
Josef the last to be noticed, but to Carter's watchful eyes it seemed
that some lightning recognition passed between the two. Certainly he saw
Josef extend two fingers and as rapidly withdraw them. The passer-by
acknowledged the signal, if such it was, by the slightest of smiles and
passed on toward the Quai D'Orsay. Carter mentally determined to speak
to Sobieska at the first opportunity and regretted that his duties to
His Majesty for the present prohibited the consultation.

A species of stage-fright, seizing upon the King, sent a quiver through
his limbs, causing his knees to quake, his hands to tremble.

"Who will be here?" he asked in a tone he strove desperately to hold
natural and easy. He had already received this information, but speech
seemed a refuge from his trepidation. If Sutphen had noticed how his
king's voice quavered he was too loyal a subject to comment. With the
patience of iteration he answered his sovereign.

"The Duchess of Schallberg, the Countess Muhlen-Sarkey, together with
the remaining gentlemen of the household, are all anxiously waiting to
welcome Your Majesty."

In response to a signal from Sutphen, the doors were flung wide to admit
His Majesty, Stovik Fourth, King of Krovitch. An hundred electric
lights, doubled and trebled a score of times by pendant crystals and
glistening sconces, greeted the eyes of the man who a few short hours
before had been a struggling artist.

Half blinded by the brilliance, he hesitated, his foot already upon a
way strange to him. He realized numbly how symbolic of his future that
present moment might be. New conditions arose suddenly to confront him,
only to find him halting, incompetent. He took a step forward. In his
embarrassment his foot caught beneath a rug's edge. Calvert Carter's
hand, alone, kept the king from sprawling frog-wise on the polished
floor. A sudden pallor at the untimely accident cam