"All right. We can play poker while they bay the moon."

"Hold on, though; she won't go without some other woman, you know. It
would be in all the papers."

"She has a lady-companion," said Barker.

"That won't do for respectability."

"It is rather awkward, then." There was silence for a few moments.

"Stop a bit," said the Duke suddenly. "It just strikes me. I have got a
sister somewhere. I'll look her up. She is never ill at sea, and they
have sent her husband off to Kamtchatka, or some such place."

"That's the very thing," said Barker. "I will talk to Claudius. Can you
manage the Countess, do you think? Have you known her long?"

"Rather. Ever since she married poor Alexis."

"All right, then. You ask her." And they reached their hotel.

So these two gentlemen settled things between them. They both wanted to
go to America, and they were not in a hurry, so that the prospect of a
pleasant party, with all the liberty and home feeling there is on board
of a yacht, was an immense attraction. Barker, of course, was amused and
interested by his scheme for making Claudius and the Countess fall in
love with each other, and he depended on the dark lady for his show.
Claudius would not have been easily induced to leave Europe by argument
or persuasion, but there was little doubt that he would follow the