sy gestures and ready compliance as the guests arose to quaff
the toast to this new queen.

As for the queen herself, she stood faltering, her eyes averted, her
limbs trembling. John Law, tall, calm, self-possessed, did not take his
seat, but stood with set, fixed face, gazing at the woman who held the
place of honor at the table of the regent.

"Come! Come!" cried the latter, testily, his wine working in his brain.
"Why stand you there, Monsieur L'as, gazing as though spellbound?
Salute, sir, as I do, the chief gem of France, and her who is most fit
to wear it!"

John Law stood, as though he had not heard him speak. There swept
through the softly brilliant air, over the flash and glitter of the
great banquet board, across the little group which stood about it, a
sudden sense of a strange, tense, unfamiliar situation. There came to
all a presentiment of some unusual thing about to happen. Instinctively
the hands paused, even as they raised the bright and brimming glasses.
The eyes of all turned from one to the other, from the stern-faced man
to the woman decked in barbaric finery, who now stood trembling,
drooping, at the head of the table.

Law for a moment removed his gaze from the face of the regent's guest.
He flicked lightly at the deep cuff of lace which hung about his hands.
"Your Grace is not far wrong," said he. "I regret that you do not have
your way in planning for me a surprise. Yet I must say to you, that I
have already met this lady."

"What?" cried the regent. "You have met her? Impossible! Incredible!
How, Monsieur L'as? We will admit you wizard enough, and owner of the
philosopher's stone--owner of anything you like, except this secret of
mine own. According to mademoiselle's own words, it would have been
impossible."

"None the less, what I have said is true," said John Law, calmly, his
voice even and well-modulated, vibrating a little, yet showing no trace
of anger nor of emotional uncontrol.

"But I tell you it could not be!" again exclaimed the regent.

"No, it is impossible," broke in the young Duc de Richelieu. "I would
swear that had such beauty ever set foot in Paris before now, the news
would so have spread that all France had been at her feet."

Law looked at the impudent youth with a gaze that seemed to pass
through him, seeing him not. Then suddenly this scene and its
significance, its ultimate meaning seemed to take instant hold upon him.
He could feel rising within his soul a fl