"The President fears me politically, he fears my following!" The ambassador drew himself a little more upright, a stiff unbending figure.

His words seemed suddenly to become charged with more weight.
"Monsieur Pailleton," he said, "the only thing that France fears is treachery!" Pailleton gripped at the back of his chair.

The room for a moment swam before his eyes.
"Is this an insult, Monsieur l'Ambassadeur ?" he demanded.
"Take it as an insult if in your heart there is no shadow of treachery towards the France that is today, towards the cause of the Allies as it is to-day," was the stern answer.
"I refuse to accept this extraordinary mission," Pailleton declared, rising to his feet.

"You can send whom you will to Brazil.

I have greater affairs before me." The ambassador shrugged his shoulders.
"I shall not press you," he said.