“I am so disappointed that your daughter could not come,” Edith told him for the second time.  “I’m afraid she objects to our American informality.”

“No, no, my dear lady,” said their guest.  “She admires American customs, as I do.  We are progressive—­we have travelled.  In my home, in my private life, perhaps, I am Panamanian, but in my business and in my contact with other peoples I am as they are.  It is the same with my daughter.”

“When you Latins really become cosmopolitan you are more so than we Americans,” Cortlandt acknowledged.  “We assume foreign airs and customs that please us and forget to retain our own, while you—­ well, with Germans you are German, with Englishmen you are English, and yet you never forget to be Spaniards.”

The banker smiled.  “My daughter has had a wide education for a child.  She has travelled, she speaks five languages—­and yet, underneath it all she is a Garavel and hence a Panamanian.  She is all I have, and my life is hers.”

“When we are settled in our new house we hope to see something of you both.”

“You have effected a lease of the Martinez home, I believe?”

“Yes.  Do you know it?”

“As my own.  You are indeed fortunate to secure so fine a place.  I wish that in some way I might be of service to you.”

“The wish is mutual,” Cortlandt answered, meaningly, but Senor Garavel concealed any recognition of the tone by a formal bow, and the meal progressed with only the customary small talk to enliven it.

As soon as the three had adjourned to the Cortlandt’s suite the host of the evening proceeded to approach the subject in his mind as directly as the circumstances permitted.  Through a series of natural transitions the conversation was brought around to politics, and Garavel was adroitly sounded.  But he displayed little interest, maintaining a reserve that baffled them.  It was impossible to betray him into an expression of feeling favorable to their views.  When at last he consented to show his awareness of the suggestion so constantly held out, he spoke with deliberate intention.

“General Alfarez is my respected friend,” he said, with a quietness that intensified his meaning, “and I rejoice that he will be the next President of Panama.”

“You, of course, know that there is opposition to him?”

“All Panama knows that.”

“General Alfarez does not seem to be a friend of the United States.”

“There are few who hold the views I do.  He is a man of strong character, he has no commercial interests to influence him as I have, and so we differ.  Yet I respect him—­”

“It is precisely because of those views of yours that I wish to consult you,” said Cortlandt, slowly.  “In all the Republic there is no one so progressive as you.  May I speak frankly?”

Garavel inclined his white head without removing his intense, dark eyes from the speaker.