caricature, the hope of a party, smiling
already a presidential smile as he passed, observed and beset, through
the crowded rooms; or these naval or military men, with their hard
serviceable looks, and the curt good manners of their kind:--the General
saw as clearly as anybody else, that America need make no excuses
whatever for her best men, that she has evolved the leaders she wants,
and Europe has nothing to teach them.

He could only console himself by the remembrance of a speech, made by a
well-known man, at a military function which the General had attended as
a guest of honour the day before. There at last was the real thing! The
real, Yankee, spread-eagle thing! The General positively hugged the
thought of it.

"The American soldier," said the speaker, standing among the
ambassadors, the naval and military _attaches_, of all the European
nations, "is the superior of all other soldiers in three
respects--bravery, discipline, intelligence."

_Bravery, discipline, intelligence!_ Just those--the merest trifle! The
General had found himself chuckling over it in the visions of the night.

Tired at last of these various impressions, acting on a mind not quite
alert enough to deal with them, the General went in search of his
nephew. Roger had been absent all day, and the General had left the
hotel before his return. But the uncle was sure that he would sooner or
later put in an appearance.

It was of course entirely on Roger's account that this unwilling guest
of America was her guest still. For three weeks now had the General been
watching the affair between Roger and Daphne Floyd. It had gone with
such a rush at first, such a swing and fervour, that the General had
felt that any day might bring the _denouement_. It was really impossible
to desert the lad at such a crisis, especially as Laura was so excitable
and anxious, and so sure to make her brother pay for it if he failed to
support her views and ambitions at the right moment. The General
moreover felt the absolute necessity of getting to know something more
about Miss Floyd, her character, the details of her fortune and
antecedents, so that when the great moment came he might be prepared.

But the astonishing thing was that of late the whole affair seemed to
have come to some stupid hitch! Roger had been behaving like a very cool
hand--too cool by half in the General's opinion. What the deuce did he
mean by hanging about these Boston ladies, if his affecti