nearly a thousand to the good, away with me to a table at the far end of the room.

And then I blessed my ill luck, for there was Gwendolyn at last! Her eyes sparkled and her face was flushed as she leaned toward the wheel and gaily bet some of Papa Wigleigh's money. Papa was with her. He was not betting.

As the evening progressed, I came to the conclusion that papa was the most supremely bored person I had ever seen in my life. Later I discovered that he had been born in a casual, offhand manner, and that boredom was to him as the color of their eyes is to most men, an unalterable feature.

Hyde noticed me staring at Gwendolyn and informed me that she was the reigning beauty of Aristokia.

"The man at her right," he added, "is Prince Juan do Braganza, the bestdressed man in Aristokia, for which he was made Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy, and Aërial Forces. He 's a gay Lothario, a home-breaker, the victorious participant in a hundred duels, the idol of the young bloods, and the adored of all the women. He has ninety-nine different uniforms and never wears the same one twice. keeps thirty-three tailors busy."

He

I looked at the man on her right and recognized him immediately as the person who had caused such a commotion by his presence at the opera my first night in Aristokia. "What a peacock!" I thought. He was marvelous to look at. I had never seen a uniform fit so well. It was a part of him. He was the uniform.

And then as Gwendolyn glanced casually across at me without in any way acknowledging my existence, I suddenly felt shabby and ill at ease. I struggled helplessly with my collar, which I became convinced was at least two sizes too large for me.

I was trying desperately to make Gwendolyn look me in the eyes and give me some little sign when Hyde tugged my arm frantically.

"Oh, Lord! oh, Lord! Don't stare! The man on her left, her father, he 's the fellow who had me pinched to-day when I asked him the time. Let's go." And he pulled me away from the table.

But I had no intention of leaving that table; not until Gwendolyn did, at any rate. So I upbraided Hyde for his cowardice. Was he, a citizen of the world, going to let an aristocrat, a mere baron, frighten him away? Where was his pride? What would Benton, Nebraska, think of him? My words had the desired effect, and we returned to the table, but on the opposite side, near Gwendolyn.

I was determined to talk at Gwendolyn through Hyde. It was the only plan I could hit on.

"Do you ever walk in the Bois Bourbon near the statue of Marie Antoinette?" I said to Hyde as I placed a bet on the red. She was playing red.

Hyde was too busy betting to answer me, so I repeated the question loudly and with emphasis.

He murmured "No," as the croupier scooped in our money.

"I do," I almost shouted, "every morning at half-past nine."

"What's the idea?" asked Hyde.

"Oh, it's so nice and lonesome there. Nobody comes," I said, looking at Gwendolyn reproachfully.

"Good Lord! Then why do you do it?" queried the rather puzzled Hyde. "I go there to look for company." "But you just said it was lonesome there," he protested.

"Yes, it is. That's the trouble." Hyde gave me a quick, searching glance. "What did you say?" he asked. "I don't think I understood."

He was evidently very much puzzled. I seized the opportunity with avidity and fairly yelled at him:

"Yes, that 's the trouble. Nobody 's there." I wanted Gwendolyn to get the significance of this remark.

Baron Wigleigh had been staring at me through his monocle for some time. I must confess it had made me a little nervous, but I was determined not to be put out of countenance by the aristocratic descendant of a chewing-gum magnate. After all, one could swallow my capsules.

So I looked right at the baron and added playfully, "Nobody, Nobody, NOBODY!"

The baron half squinted at me and turned to Don Juan.

"I wonder why Nobodies talk so beastly loud," he remarked.

Hyde nudged me with his elbow, and his eyes said, "You see the depths of displeasure you are bringing on our heads!"

After a pause, as Don Juan had not paid the slightest attention to the baron's query, he continued introspectively, with all the manner of a very bored actor reading a soliloquy of which he does not approve:

"I suppose they have to keep their silly lungs in training for public speaking. A republic without oratory would be quite impossible. Democracy is government by declamation."

Don Juan ignored this, which I thought a gem of political observation. I was beginning to like the baron, but not the trend of events. In attempting to arouse Gwendolyn to indirect repartee I had started a soliloquy by her father; I determined to try again. The baron started to speak, but I drowned him out:

"I have wandered about this city looking-looking everywhere-for a week," I said.

"Have you lost something?" Hyde asked.

"Yes, a jewel, a rare jewel."

"Too bad! Why don't you report it

to the police?" suggested Hyde.

"It's all right. I've found it now." "That 's good."

"But I'm afraid I shall lose it again." "Why don't you keep it locked up at the hotel?"

"I wish I could," I sighed, looking longingly at Gwendolyn; "but I can't control it."

"What?" Hyde stared at me. I knew instantly that he considered me demented.

"I wish I knew where to go to-morrow," I said after a pause during which we waited for the spin of the wheel.

"What for?" inquired Hyde, looking dubiously at me over his shoulder.

"To find the jewel that I shall lose again-in half an hour or so."

That last remark settled matters for poor Hyde. From that moment until he left Aristokia he always treated me as a harmless lunatic, which simplified things immeasurably.

I wanted to see what effects my shots were having on Gwendolyn, but she was looking at Hyde, whose expression was a unique admixture of terror, bewilderment, and sympathy. It was too much for her sense of humor, and she went into peals of delicious laughter.

Braganza, feeling reassured at the effect of his wit, told Gwendolyn another anecdote about himself, which she never heard, I am sure, for he was obliged to repeat the point. Even then she laughed in the wrong place.

"I'm not going to talk any more," I said to Hyde, who seemed greatly relieved by my decision. I turned quickly and looked at the baron, but though I could swear he was secretly elated, he gave no outward sign. "I'm going to listen. I might hear something of in

terest." I wanted Gwendolyn to know that it was now up to her to talk at me through Braganza.

In a few moments she said, as she placed an extra-heavy bet, "Faint heart ne'er won fair lady, Juan."

Was this meant for me? I doubled my bet on her number. We won. For some time I had been winning, but I had been too interested in my mad duologue with Hyde to realize how much. Now that I hardly cared what the result of the turn of the wheel might be, I won steadily.

As I played, I listened for something more tangibly hopeful for me to fall from Gwendolyn's lips, but I listened in vain.

I watched Braganza. How attentive he was to her! With what subtle gallantry and finesse he wooed her! His conversation was a mosaic of little things which in themselves meant nothing; but, taken as a whole, what did they not mean?

I

And then it was that I came to a momentous decision. If ever I was to have the exquisite pleasure of talking to Gwendolyn again, I must make the opportunity, I must be the aggressor. She had shown the way once; it was now up to me. I had been a fool. would seek out her house, I would shadow her. To talk with her again I would risk everything. What was a fine or two? The little wheel was making enough for me to pay a dozen fines. Gwendolyn's nearness intoxicated me and sent a thrill of courage throbbing through my veins.

"From now on I 'm going to take chances," I said out loud. "I've been a fool. I'm going to plunge. I 'm going to be reckless."

I bet my entire pile and won. I was now several thousand ahead of the game. As I gathered the coins and bills the croupier pushed toward me, Gwendolyn and Braganza left the table. Papa had turned away just ahead of them. His parting shot had been: "I'm going to see Prince Karl"-Prince Karl was a Hapsburg and one of the most influential Royal Blues-"about a law to prohibit oratory in public places, and thus reduce the volume of sound emitted by tourists."

I told Hyde I thought we had better quit, and though he had been losing for some time, he agreed. I tried to follow Gwendolyn, but Hyde wanted to go in the opposite direction, and while we discussed the matter, she was swallowed up in the crowd.

Gwendolyn had disappeared, moving in the direction of a lounging space filled with comfortable sofas and chairs and small tables at which drinks were served. It was situated in a semi-oval recess between the two wings of the great stairway that went up to the

airplane entrance. The stairs were not so crowded but that I could see her, were she to leave that way. Surmising, however, that the baron was probably slaking his thirst after his arduous speechmaking at my expense, I suggested a drink, and with my eyes on the stairs led the way to the lounge.

There I found Gwendolyn and her escorts seated on a sofa. There was a third man in uniform, who, Hyde informed me, was a Bonaparte.

I ordered a thing called, for some obscure reason, a highball, and while I sipped it I wrote on the back of an envelop:

"MISS SMITH: Do you ever walk in the Bois Bolshevik near the statue of Leon Trotzky? It was very nice there once at half-after nine."

I was very proud of this. She would understand, but no one else would.

Hyde had been watching me, consumed with intense curiosity. He had started nervously every time I had chuckled with self-satisfaction during the composition of my note. I could see that he was eager to ask me what I was doing, but a really charming reticence restrained him. I liked him for it.

"Just a few observations on the course of human events," I said.

"Oh." Dazed, he looked at me. We finished our drinks. The men in Gwendolyn's party rose and stood for an instant, their backs to the sofa, waving and beckoning to a bearded man descending the stairs. Gwendolyn only half turned, and I caught her eye. I jumped up. As I passed her I dropped the folded envelop, and continued on my way without looking backward.

I was congratulating myself on the neatness with which I had done the thing when I heard a queer and weird exclamation behind me. It was Hyde. I had forgotten him in my plan of campaign.

"Excuse me, old man, but you dropped this," he said and handed me the envelop.

I took it. It was unfolded. "Did you read it?" I asked. "Well-you see " Hyde reddened and became inarticulate. "It was-that

utter amazement, and I shall never forgive myself for having so misjudged him, he dashed straight at the baron and the others now grouped about the policeman.

The officer was explaining to Prince Romanoff that we could not possibly be arrested for proposing a statue to Leon Trotzky; we had broken no law of Aristokia.

"Then it's a damn silly country," said the baron.

It was at this point that Hyde reached the group, talking rapidly.

"Gentlemen, I know I should not address you, that I am only a Nobody, that you are great princes; but my poor friend is insane, though perfectly harmless. I will remove him immediately, and assure you—"

He got no further. That much had taken the august gentlemen by surprise. But now the baron was smiling contentedly.

"This vulgar outburst simplifies matters," he said to the policeman. "The charge is talking to Aristokians and addressing us as gentlemen instead of using our titles correctly."

"Yes, your Lordship." The policeman bowed, and took Hyde by the arm. "Let me look at the fellow," the baron demanded, looking at Hyde through his monocle. "Yes, the physiognomy is too similar for mere resemblance.

This

this does n't wind its watch regularly; lax habits. Second offense, Officer. He stopped me in the boulevard this afternoon."

Without further ado the policeman led Hyde away. I followed dismally. Well, anyway, Gwendolyn had read my note.

We entered a well-furnished room of nondescript character through a small, half-concealed door under the stairs. It was neither an office nor an anteroom. Two or three policemen were lounging about smoking.

"I'm so sorry, old chap," I began my excuses to Hyde.

"It's all right."

The policeman smiled at us genially. "Don't worry, don't worry. Baron Wigleigh never appears to press a charge. It bores him too much."

"Really?" I asked in surprise.

A policeman over by the wall stretched, yawned, and remarked:

"He had three hundred and fifty tourists arrested last season, and appeared against only three of them."

Hyde breathed a sigh of relief.

"I can fix this up for you," said our policeman.

"Can you?" I asked, wondering just what the technic of the thing would be. Then I noticed Hyde digging down into his pockets, and I understood.

"No, no," I interposed; "you are my guest." I took out my roll. "How much?" I asked the policeman.

"Well, your fine for talking to them I would have been one hundred dollars, for using their titles wrong would have been a hundred apiece. As there were four of them, that 's four hundred. Second offense doubles. That 's a grand total of one thousand." He paused. "Ten per cent. of that would be one hundred."

I gave him the hundred, and we turned to go.

"Wait a bit," he said. "You'll be wanting your receipt."

My brain reeled. I took the receipt in a dream.