ned something and having now those means of carrying on my studies
which I required, I came to this last of the countries, America, where,
if anywhere, hope for mankind remains. Washington has impressed me more
than any capital of the world."

"How long have you been in Washington?" I asked.

"Now you begin to question--now you show at last curiosity! Well, then,
I shall answer. For more than one year, perhaps more than two, perhaps
more than three!"

"Impossible!" I shook my head. "A woman like you could not be
concealed--not if she owned a hundred hidden places such as this."

"Oh, I was known," she said. "You have heard of me, you knew of me?"

I still shook my head. "No," said I, "I have been far in the West for
several years, and have come to Washington but rarely. Bear me out, I
had not been there my third day before I found you!"

We sat silent for some moments, fixedly regarding each other. I have
said that a more beautiful face than hers I had never seen. There sat
upon it now many things--youth, eagerness, ambition, a certain defiance;
but, above all, a pleading pathos! I could not find it in my heart,
eager as I was, to question her further. Apparently she valued this
reticence.

"You condemn me?" she asked at length. "Because I live alone, because
quiet rumor wags a tongue, you will judge me by your own creed and not
by mine?"

I hesitated before I answered, and deliberated. "Madam, I have already
told you that I would not. I say once more that I accredit you with
living up to your own creed, whatever that may have been."

She drew a long breath in turn. "Monsieur, you have done yourself no ill
turn in that."

"It was rumored in diplomatic circles, of course, that you were in touch
with the ministry of England," I ventured. "I myself saw that much."

"Naturally. Of Mexico also! At least, as you saw in our little carriage
race, Mexico was desirous enough to establish some sort of communication
with my humble self!"

"Calhoun was right!" I exclaimed. "He was entirely right, Madam, in
insisting that I should bring you to him that morning, whether or not
you wished to go."

"Whim fits with whim sometimes. `Twas his whim to see me, mine to go."

"I wonder what the Queen of Sheba would have said had Solomon met her
thus!"

She chuckled at the memory. "You see, when you left me at Mr. Calhoun's
door in care of the Grand Vizier James, I wondered somewhat at this
strange country of America. The _en