She blushed crimson, but quickly pulled herself together. She was equal to anything now.
'Is that all?' she asked carelessly. 'I should have thought they said a great deal more and a great deal worse than that.'
He looked at her in some surprise.
'What else do you suppose they could have said?'
'I fancied,' she answered with a laugh, 'that they were saying I went everywhere after you.'
'Come, come,' he said, after a moment's pause, during which the Dictator seemed almost as much bewildered as if she had thrown her fan in his face. 'You mustn't talk nonsense. I am speaking quite seriously.'
'So am I, I can assure you.'
'Well, well, to come to the point of what I had to say. People are talking, and they tell each other that I am coming after you, to marry you, for the sake of your money.'
'Oh!' She recoiled under the pain of these words. 'Oh, for shame,' she exclaimed, 'they cannot say that—of you—of you?'
'Yes, they do. They say that I am a mere broken-down and penniless political adventurer—that I am trying to recover my lost position in Gloria—which I am, and by God's good help I shall recover it too.'