'There's no other man?' he added quickly.
Marcia for a second looked up in his face. 'No,' she shook her head, 'there's no other man.'
He straightened up, with a happy laugh. 'Then I'll win,' he whispered, and he shook her hand as if on a compact.
'_Stazione_,' he called to the driver. And as the carriage started, Marcia glanced back and nodded toward the Roystons, with a quick smile for Paul.
'AH, Sybert, you're just the man I wanted to see!' Melville came up the walk of the palazzo occupied by the American ambassador as Sybert, emerging from the door, paused on the top step to draw on his gloves.
'In that case,' the latter returned, 'it's well you didn't come five minutes later, or I should have been lost to the world for the afternoon. What's up?'
'Nothing serious. Can you spare me a few moments' talk? I won't take up your time if you are in a hurry.'
'Not in the least. I'm entirely at your disposal. Nothing on for the afternoon, and I was preparing to loaf.'
The two turned back into the house and crossed the hall to the ambassador's private library. Melville closed the door and regarded his companion a trifle quizzically. Sybert dropped into a chair, indicated another, and pushed a box of cigars and some matches across the table; then he looked up and caught Melville's expression.
The consul-general selected a cigar with some deliberation, bit off the end, and regarded it critically, while his smile broadened. 'I have just returned from the mass meeting of the foreign residents,' he remarked.
'It was,' he admitted. 'There was some spirited discussion as to the best way of suppressing the riots.'
'Of course a committee!' Sybert laughed. 'And what is the committee to do? Wait on the ministers and invite them to reconstruct their morals? Ask the King to spend a little less money on the soldiers' uniforms and a little more on their rations?'
'The Committee,' said Melville, 'is to raise money for food, and to assist the government as far as possible in quieting the people and suppressing the agitators.'
'And,' he added, with his eye on the young man, 'I have the honour of informing you that you were made chairman.'
'This is not an official notification,' he pursued blandly; 'but I thought you'd like to hear the news.'