As for the queen herself, she stood faltering, her eyes averted, her limbs trembling.  John Law, tall, calm, self-possessed, did not take his seat, but stood with set, fixed face, gazing at the woman who held the place of honor at the table of the regent.

“Come!  Come!” cried the latter, testily, his wine working in his brain.  “Why stand you there, Monsieur L’as, gazing as though spellbound?  Salute, sir, as I do, the chief gem of France, and her who is most fit to wear it!”

John Law stood, as though he had not heard him speak.  There swept through the softly brilliant air, over the flash and glitter of the great banquet board, across the little group which stood about it, a sudden sense of a strange, tense, unfamiliar situation.  There came to all a presentiment of some unusual thing about to happen.  Instinctively the hands paused, even as they raised the bright and brimming glasses.  The eyes of all turned from one to the other, from the stern-faced man to the woman decked in barbaric finery, who now stood trembling, drooping, at the head of the table.

Law for a moment removed his gaze from the face of the regent’s guest.  He flicked lightly at the deep cuff of lace which hung about his hands.  “Your Grace is not far wrong,” said he.  “I regret that you do not have your way in planning for me a surprise.  Yet I must say to you, that I have already met this lady.”

“What?” cried the regent.  “You have met her?  Impossible!  Incredible!  How, Monsieur L’as?  We will admit you wizard enough, and owner of the philosopher’s stone—­owner of anything you like, except this secret of mine own.  According to mademoiselle’s own words, it would have been impossible.”

“None the less, what I have said is true,” said John Law, calmly, his voice even and well-modulated, vibrating a little, yet showing no trace of anger nor of emotional uncontrol.

“But I tell you it could not be!” again exclaimed the regent.

“No, it is impossible,” broke in the young Duc de Richelieu.  “I would swear that had such beauty ever set foot in Paris before now, the news would so have spread that all France had been at her feet.”

Law looked at the impudent youth with a gaze that seemed to pass through him, seeing him not.  Then suddenly this scene and its significance, its ultimate meaning seemed to take instant hold upon him.  He could feel rising within his soul a flood of irresistible emotions.  All at once his anger, heritage of an impetuous youth, blazed up hot and furious.  He trod a step farther forward, after his fashion advancing close to that which threatened him.

“This lady, your Grace,” said he, “has been known to me for years.  Mary Connynge, what do you masquerading here?”

A sudden silence fell, a silence broken at length by the voice of the regent himself.

“Surely, Monsieur L’as,” said Philippe, “surely we must accept your statements.  But Monsieur must remember that this is the table of the regent, that these are the friends of the regent.  We bring no recollections here which shall cut short the joy of any person.  Sir, I would not reprimand you, but I must beg that you be seated and be calm!”