t denied them to the Marquis de Bienville. They were all the more
astonishing in that they came out of a sky that was relatively clear. As
he stood in his dressing-gown, with a cigarette between his fingers, at
one of the upper windows of his tall, towerlike hotel, he would have
said that his life at the moment resembled the blue dome above him, from
which, after a cloudy dawn and dull early morning, the last fleecy
drifts were being blown away.

There were many circumstances that combined just now to make him glad of
being Raoul de Laval, Marquis de Bienville. The mere material comfort of
modern hotel luxury had a certain joyous novelty after nearly two years
spent amid the unprofitable splendors of the tropical forest. True, New
York was not Paris; but it was an excellent distributing centre for
Parisian commodities and news, and would do very well for the work he
had immediately in hand. So far, all promised hopefully. His valet had
joined him from France, with whatever he could wish in the way of
wardrobe; and Mrs. Bayford's reply to his note contained much
information beyond what was actually written down in words. Moreover,
the statement he had found awaiting him from the Credit Lyonnais
revealed the fact that, owing to the two years in which he had little or
no need to spend money, he could now live with handsome extravagance
until after he married Miss Grimston. He might even pay the more
pressing of his debts, though that possibility presented itself in the
light of a work of supererogation, seeing that in so short a time he
should be able to pay them all.

Then would begin a new era in his life. On that point he was quite
determined. At thirty-two years of age it was high time to think of
being something better in the world than a mere man-beauty. His
experience with Persigny had shown that he was capable of something
worthier than dalliance, as his fathers had been before him.

He did not precisely blame himself for shortcomings in the past, since,
according to French ideas, he had not enough money on which to be
useful, while his social position precluded work. He could not serve his
country for fear of serving the republic, nor live on his estates,
because Bienville was too expensive to keep up. However well-meaning his
nature, there had been almost nothing open to him but the career of the
idle, handsome, high-born youth, with money enough to pay for the
luxuries of life, while his name secured credit fo