efore
him into elements favorable or unfavorable to his plans, and in his
mind he shuffled them and their values for him or against him as a
gambler arranges and rearranges the cards in his hand. He saw himself
plainly as his own highest card, and Barrat and Erhaupt as willing but
mediocre accomplices. In Father Paul and Kalonay he recognized his
most powerful allies or most dangerous foes. Miss Carson meant nothing
to him but a source from which he could draw the sinews of war. What
would become of her after the farce was ended, he did not consider. He
was not capable of comprehending either her or her motives, and had he
concerned himself about her at all, he would have probably thought that
she was more of a fool than the saint she pretended to be, and that she
had come to their assistance more because she wished to be near a
Prince and a King than because she cared for the souls of sixty
thousand peasants. That she would surely lose her money, and could
hardly hope to escape from them without losing her good name, did not
concern him. It was not his duty to look after the reputation of any
American heiress who thought she could afford to be unconventional.
She had a mother to do that for her, and she was pretty enough, he
concluded, to excuse many things,--so pretty that he wondered if he
might brave the Countess Zara and offer Miss Carson the attentions to
which Kalonay had made such arrogant objections. The King smiled at
the thought, and let his little eyes fall for a moment on the tall
figure of the girl with its crown of heavy golden hair, and on her
clever, earnest eyes. She was certainly worth waiting for, and in the
meanwhile she was virtually unprotected and surrounded by his own
people. According to his translation of her acts, she had already
offered him every encouragement, and had placed herself in a position
which to his understanding of the world could have but one
interpretation. What Kalonay's sudden infatuation might mean he could
not foresee; whether it promised good or threatened evil, he could only
guess, but he decided that the young man's unwonted show of
independence of the morning must be punished. His claim to exclusive
proprietorship in the young girl struck the King as amusing, but
impertinent. It would be easy sailing in spite of all, he decided; for
somewhere up above them in the hotel sat the unbidden guest, the woman
against whom Father Paul had raised the ban of expulsion