"Of course, I am only speculating; nothing has been done as yet." "Then something _is_ going to be done?" asked the American, clearing his voice. "One day or another. If we can not find the clerk, we shall look higher. We should consider a million francs well invested. America is rapidly becoming a great power. But let us drop the subject and turn to something more agreeable to us both. Your daughter is charming. I honestly confess to you that I have not met her equal in any country. Pardon my presumption, but may I ask if she is engaged to be married?" "Not to my knowledge,"--vastly surprised and at the same time pleased. "Are you averse to foreign alliances?" The diplomat dipped the end of a fresh-lighted cigar into his coffee. "My dear Count, I am not averse to foreign alliances, but I rather suspect that my daughter is. This aversion might be overcome, however." What a vista was opened to this wretched father! If only she might marry riches, how easily he might confess what he had done, how easily all this despair and terror might be dispersed! And here was a man who was known in the great world, rich, young and handsome. The other gazed dreamily at the ceiling; from there his gaze traveled about the coffee-room, with its gathering of coffee-drinkers, and at length came back to his _vis-a-vis_. "You will return to Washington?" he asked. "I shall live there for the winter; that is, I expect to." "Doubtless we shall see each other this winter, then,"--and the count threw away his cigar, bade his companion good night, and went to his room. How adroitly he had sown the seed! At that period he had no positive idea upon what kind of ground he had cast it. But he took that chance which all far-sighted men take, and then waited. There was little he had not learned about this handsome American with the beautiful daughter. How he had learned will always remain dark to me. My own opinion is that he had been studying him during his tenure of office in Washington, and, with that patience which is making Russia so formidable, waited for this opportunity.