her, you short sighted one--marry her,
and thus alienate every Slav in the Balkans. I have turned this thing in
my mind constantly since I recovered from the first shock of his
achievement, and I am fairly certain of my ground. Mark you, Princess
Mirabel of Montenegro will be reported to-morrow as out of the running.
If that is so, you will begin to believe me and stop clawing your hair
and injuring your fine complexion by scowling."

Next morning's "Matin" announced that King Alexis was greatly annoyed by
the mischievous and utterly unfounded canard that bracketed his name
with that of a woman he had never seen. Count Julius read, and made a
hasty toilet. Beliani and he had laid their plans overnight, and he lost
no time in opening the new campaign.

It was a difficult and delicate task he had undertaken. Paris, big in
many respects, is small in its society, which, because of its well
marked limits, makes a noise in the world quite incommensurate with its
importance; whereas London, close neighbor and rival, contains a dozen
definite circles that seldom overlap. The woman Julius had seen with
Alec in the Louvre was not on Princess Michael's visiting list, of that
he had no manner of doubt. Therefore, from his point of view, the only
possible solution of their apparent friendship would prove to be
something underhanded and clandestine, an affair of secret meetings, and
letters signed in initials, and a tacit agreement to move unhindered in
different orbits.

Being of the nature of dogs and aboriginal trackers, Marulitch made
straight for the Louvre. There he had quitted the trail, and there must
he pick it up again. But the hunt demanded the utmost wariness. If he
startled the quarry, he might fail at the outset, and, supposing his
talking was successful, both he and Beliani must still beware of a
King's vengeance if their project miscarried.

Neither man had the slightest belief in Alec's innate nobility of
character. Beliani likened him to Bayard, it is true, and Marulitch had
scoffingly adopted the simile; but that was because each thought Bayard
not admirable, but a fool. The somber history of the Kosnovian monarchy,
a record of crass stupidity made lurid at times by a lightning gleam of
passion, justified the belief that Alexis would follow the path that led
Theodore, and Ferdinand, and Ivan, and Milosch to their ruin. Each of
these rulers began to reign under favorable auspices, yet each succumbed
to the siren