Dudley. If she were not affianced to Don Pablo and if Dudley were rich and of a distinguished family, like Don Pablo, it would have helped her to decide, Carmelita was quite sure.
On the same notable evening that had brought Prince Rao-Singh, now three weeks past, she had met Dudley Drake. He had attracted her at once. An American, tall, straight as a cavalry captain, about twenty-five, he had suddenly impressed her as just about what an American should be. Lucy, discreetly questioned about him, was not so enthusiastic. Yes, he came of a good family but through the wrong branch. Jack Hodge was a business friend of Dudley's uncle, a very wealthy Wall Street operator, but Dudley was just a clerk in his relative's establishment with no money and few prospects. "Not worth a glance from your pretty eyes, my dear. Good-looking but just a poor relation who will never get anywhere," she had summed him up.
And so the Parisian duel between the "poor relation" and the Indian prince for the affections of Carmelita, already promised to the rich Don Pablo Mendoza, started. Whatever Prince Rao-Singh's feelings toward her might be, Carmelita was sure that Drake was in love with her. Though as yet he had scrupulously avoided speaking a word of love to her, his
