Mrs. Carson--and as for Patty--I am almost
afraid of her--I've been hearing all sorts of things about you lately,
Patty," he went on, turning a smiling countenance toward the girl.
"About your engagements to princes and dukes--all sorts of disturbing
rumors. What a terrible swell you've grown to be. I hardly recognize
you at all, Mrs. Carson. It isn't possible this is the same young girl
I used to take buggy riding on Sunday evenings?"

"Indeed, it is not. I wish it were," said Mrs. Carson, plaintively,
sinking into a chair. "I'm glad to see you're not changed, Archie,"
she added, with a sigh.

"Why, he's very much changed, mother," the girl said. "He's taller,
and, in comparison with what he was, he's almost wasted away, and so
sunburned I hardly knew him. Except round the forehead," she added,
mockingly, "and I suppose the sun couldn't burn there because of the
laurel-wreaths. I hear they bring them to you fresh every morning."

"They're better than coronets, at any rate," Gordon answered, with a
nod. "They're not so common. And if I'm wasted away, can you wonder?
How long has it been since I saw you, Patty?"

"No, I'm wrong, he's not changed," Miss Carson said dryly, as she
seated herself beside her mother.

"How do you two come to be stopping here?" the young man asked. "I
thought this hotel had been turned over to King Louis?"

"It has," Mrs. Carson answered. "We are staying at the Continental, on
the hill there. We are only here for breakfast. He asked us to
breakfast."

"He?" repeated Gordon, with an incredulous smile. "Who? Not the
King--not that blackguard?"

Miss Carson raised her head, and stared at him in silence, and her
mother gave a little gasp, apparently of relief and satisfaction.

"Yes," Miss Carson answered at last, coldly. "We are breakfasting with
him. What do you know against him?"

Gordon stared at her with such genuine astonishment that the girl
lowered her eyes, and, bending forward in her chair, twirled her
parasol nervously between her fingers.

"What do I know against him? Why, Patty!" he exclaimed. "How did you
meet him, in Heaven's name?" he asked, roughly. "Have you been seen
with him? Have you known him long? Who had the impudence to present
him?"

Mrs. Carson looked up, now thoroughly alarmed. Her lower lip was
trembling, and she twisted her gloved hands together in her lap.

"What do you know against him?" Miss Carson repeated, meeting Gordon's