Many eyes, followed this speaker wistfully. With such wealth as his how many months of frenzied pleasure they might have at Monte Carlo!
"One American idiot, at least," muttered Totten, in disgust. "Or else he's a liar or braggart."
Madly the play went on, the faces of the players growing more flushed as the hour grew later.
Totten moved along with a bored air.
"I guess he's going," said Dan. "I don't blame him for being tired of the place. It's like a human menagerie."
"We'll go, then," agreed Dave. "Surely I have seen enough of the Casino. I shall never care to revisit it."
"Ah, here you are, my dear fellows!" exclaimed a musical voice. "And the Countess Ripoli has asked me to present you to her. She is eager to know if you American officers are as wonderful as I have told her."
The speaker was Dandelli, a handsome, boyish-looking, frank-faced young Italian naval officer with whom Darrin and Dalzell had become acquainted at Gibraltar.
The Countess Ripoli, to whom Dandelli now presented the two young ensigns, was a woman in the full flower of her beauty at twenty-five or so. Tall, willowy, with a perfect air, her wonderful eyes, in which there was a touch of Moorish fire, were calculated to set a young man's heart to beating responses to her mood. Attired in the latest mode of Paris, and wearing only enough jewels to enhance her great beauty, the Countess chose to be most gracious to the young ensigns. Dave thought her a charming young woman; Dan Dalzell nearly lost his head.
From a distance Emil Gortchky looked on, a quiet smile gleaming in his eyes.