e! That would be odious--that must not be! Do you
mean that they want you to marry? How cruel!"

He did not smile at the absurdity of her protest, it was so sincere.

"Well, Cesarine, they are blind here, and deaf to the signs along their
own frontier. The French rely on a Russian alliance, when already Herr
von Bismarck, the Prussian ambassador at St. Petersburg, long ago
secured its suspension. Besides, the Crimean War will always be
remembered against Napoleon--it is so easy not to ally oneself with
England, and, considering her proverbial ingratitude, so rarely
profitable. I spoke of Bismarck! This man of a million, with deep, dark
eyes, fixed and unreadable, with a cold, mocking mouth, iron will and
mighty brain, is soon to be pitted against Napoleon, the shadow whom you
have seen. I am no soothsayer, but I can tell which must go down in the
charge, and never to hold up his head again. I am one of the flies on
the common wheel who will be carried into the action and smashed,
whoever is the victor. I am unwilling to perish thus, when I can find in
love of you a paradise on earth wherever you consent to dwell with me.
Listen: I am entrusted with a prodigious sum in cash by a political
organization, the headquarters of which in France are here, at the old
marchioness's--a veteran puller of the wires that move the European
puppets. They have practically seized my German bands, and unless I
retake them at the head of a column of victorious French, I may as well
say good-bye to them. As for Terremonde, the revenue is falling every
quarter. If it were not for this secret service, I should be bankrupt,
for the Tuileries, perhaps, suspecting my good faith, pay me only in
pretty words--_a la francaise_. This bank which I hold tempts me sorely,
Cesarine, but only if you will dip into it with me. Only once in a life
does a man have his great opportunity. Mine is the present. A fortune--a
beauty! Never will I have such an opportunity again to found a
principality in Florida or the South Seas or South America--wherever we
choose to come to a rest. Speak, Cesarine, are you with me? After a
while, when the modern Attila has swept over France, perhaps we will
like to come and view the ruins and fill our gallery with the
art-treasures which the impoverished defeated ones will gladly sell."

"A large sum!" repeated the woman, frowning as her thoughts
concentrated.

"Enormous! I have been changing it into sight-drafts, and we can p