"Go back where you belong and you will have no regrets. Something may
happen--who can tell? Events--events--if a man will watch and wait and
study events--"

"Bless me! They organize clubs in every American village for the study of
events," laughed Armitage; then he changed his tone. "To be sure, the
Bourbons have studied events these many years--a pretty spectacle, too."

"Carrion! Carrion!" almost screamed the old man, half-rising in his seat.
"Don't mention those scavengers to me! Bah! The very thought of them
makes me sick. But"--he gulped down more of the brandy--"where and how do
you live?"

"Where? I own a cattle ranch in Montana and since the Archduke's death I
have lived there. He carried about fifty thousand pounds to America with
him. He took care that I should get what was left when he died--and, I am
almost afraid to tell you that I have actually augmented my inheritance!
Just before I left I bought a place in Virginia to be near Washington
when I got tired of the ranch."

"Washington!" snorted the count. "In due course it will be the storm
center of the world."

"You read the wrong American newspapers," laughed Armitage.

They were silent for a moment, in which each was busy with his own
thoughts; then the count remarked, in as amiable a tone as he ever used:

"Your French is first rate. Do you speak English as well?"