"
"But, my lord," he said pompously, "the King of Spain--"
"Is the King of Spain," I answered, cutting him short without
much ceremony. "But in the Arsenal of Paris, which, for the
present, is my house, I am king. And I brook no usurpers, M.
d'Evora."
He assented to that with a constrained smile.
"Then I can say no more," he answered. "I have warned you that
the man is a rogue. If you will still entertain him, I wash my
hands of it. But I fear the consequences, M. de Rosny, and,
frankly, it lessens my opinion of your sagacity."
Thereat I bowed in my turn, and after the exchange of some
civilities he took his leave. Considering his application after
he was gone, I confess that I found nothing surprising in it; and
had it come from a man whom I held in greater respect I might
have complied with it in an indirect fashion. But though it
might have led me under some circumstances to discard Diego,
naturally, since it confirmed his story in some points, and
proved besides that he was not a persona grata at the Spanish
Embassy, it did not lead me to value him less.
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