hates him because he has seized a throne. AY YI!
DIOS, but you should hear the words fly when we go
to war together. But I do not care that"--she
snapped her firm white fingers--"for all the Bour-
bons that are in Europe. Bonaparte! Do you know
him? Have you seen him?"

"I have seen him insult poor Markov, our ambas-
sador to France, when I can assure you that he
looked like neither a demi-god nor a gentleman.
When you have improved my Spanish I will tell you
many anecdotes of him. Meanwhile, am I to as-
sume that you reserve your admiration for the man
that carves his career in defiance of the rusty old
machinery?"

"I do! I do! My father was of the people, a
poor boy. He has risen to be the most powerful of
all Californians, although the King he adores never
makes him Gobernador Proprietario. I tell him he
should be the first to recognize the genius and the
ambitions of a Bonaparte. The mere thought hor-
rifies him. But in me that same strong plebeian
blood makes another cry, and if my father had but
enough men at his back, and the will to make him-
self King of the Californias--Madre de Dios! how
I should help him!"

"At least I know her better than she knows me,"
thought Rezanov, as the inner door was thrown