before 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