She is a stone from which one looks in vain for blood. Your launch
is--what do you call it in ze Far Vest--a goner!"

"But she's descended from Charlemagne," cried Florence. "She has
the entree to all the courts. She ought to be exposed for stealing
my boat!"

"What does anybody do when he is robbed?" said the count
philosophically. He could afford to be philosophical: it wasn't
HIS vertical inverted triple-expansion direct-acting propeller.
"Smile and be more careful ze next time," he went on. "The
marquise's reputation is international for what is charitably
called her eccentricity."

"In America they put people in jail for that kind of
eccentricity!" exclaimed Florence.

"Oh, the best way in Europe is money-with-order," said the count,
"what I remember once a friend seeing in that great country of
which you are ze ornament--in God we trust: all others cash!"

"Well, it's a shame," said Florence, "and if I ever get the chance
of a dark night I'll ram her with the Minnehaha!"

Florence's mother, a dear little old lady who did tatting and read
the Christian Herald, was always the particular target of the
fortune-hunters who pursued her daughter. It seemed such a
brilliant idea to capture the mother first as the preparatory step
of getting into the good graces of the heiress; and the old lady,
who was one of the most guileless of her sex, never failed to fall