'He is very well able to judge of his own affairs, I should think, and probably he feels sure'—and she made this a sort of direct stab at Rivers—'that in the house of Sir Rupert Langley he is among friends.'

Rivers was only amused, not in the least disconcerted.

'But these Americans, now—who knows anything about them? Don't all Americans write for newspapers? and why might not these fellows telegraph the news to the New York Herald or the New York Tribune, or some such paper, and so spread it all over the world, and send an Orizaba ironclad or two to look out for the returning Dictator?'

'I don't know them,' Mrs. Sarrasin answered, 'but my brother-in-law does, and I believe they are merely scientific men, and don't know or care anything about politics—even in their own country.'

Miss Paulo talked a good deal with Professor Flick. Mr. Copping sat on her other side, and she had tried to exchange a word or two now and then with him, but she failed in drawing out any ready response, and so she devoted all her energies to Professor Flick. She asked him all the questions she could think of concerning folk-lore. The Professor was benignant in his explanations. He was, she assumed, quite compassionate over her ignorance on the subject. She was greatly interested in his American accent. How strong it was, and yet what curiously soft and Southern tones one sometimes caught in it! Dolores had never been in the United States, but she had met a great many Americans.

'Do you come from the Southern States, Professor?' she asked, innocently seeking for an explanation of her wonder.

'Southern States, Miss Paulo? No, madam. I am from the Wild West—I have nothing to do with the South. Why did you ask?'

'Because I thought there was a tone of the Spanish in your accent, and I fancied you might have come from New Orleans. I am a sort of Spaniard, you know.'

'I have nothing to do with New Orleans,' he said—'I have never even been there.'

'But, of course, you speak Spanish?' Miss Paulo said suddenly in Spanish. 'A man with your studies must know ever so many languages.'