HIS ROYAL 
 HAPPINESS 
 
 m s EVERARD COTES 
 
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 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS
 
 Hilary Lanchester
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. EVERARD COTES 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THOSE DELIGHTFUL AMERICANS,' 
 "THE STORY OF SONNY SAHIB," ETC. 
 
 FRONTISPIECE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 1914
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 Copyright, 1914, by The Curtis Publishing Company
 
 To THE DEAR MEMORY OF 
 
 M. C. 
 INDIA, 1899-1905 
 
 2134789
 
 ;< / am the land of their fathers, 
 In me the virtue stays. 
 
 I will bring back my children 
 After certain days" 
 
 KIPLING
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 HE'LL be here in a little over an hour now," 
 said Mrs. Phipps, wife of the President of 
 the United States, putting down her novel. 
 "No she's a delightful writer, but it's not a bit of 
 use. I can't keep my mind on it. James, you have 
 not changed your tie. James to please me ! You're 
 never at your best in a brown tie. Though whatever 
 you wear you always look America's greatest gen- 
 tleman " 
 
 The President put an apologetic hand to his tie, 
 and gave himself a general corrective shake. 
 
 "Too late, my dear; I have a deputation before 
 he comes. The beggars are due in ten minutes, and 
 I shall only just get rid of them in time. Did Calder 
 get off in the auto?" 
 
 "Ages ago. He and Hilary and Freddy Howard 
 from the Embassy nearly drove me distracted after 
 lunch, begging for more cards for that wild dance of 
 theirs. We shall be suffocated as it is. I think Cap- 
 tain Howard was a little disappointed that the cav- 
 alry weren't sent to the station dear."
 
 "Very likely," said the President, with his hand 
 on the door-handle. "I hope you put the responsi- 
 bility where it belongs on the State Department. 
 They wouldn't hear of an escort till he gets to his 
 own embassy. Pakenham drives him there, with 
 Howard and the rest in a second auto, and then 
 Calder takes him over and brings him here with the 
 troop in attendance. Quite enough for a young man 
 out of employment." 
 
 "Mercy, yes, I know," said Mrs. Phipps. "And 
 perhaps he won't mind if he really is as democratic 
 as they say." 
 
 "Quite a good fellow at Oxford, from all accounts. 
 I understand his friends called him 'Cakes.' ' 
 
 " 'Cakes!' James, what a shame! I wonder it was 
 allowed." 
 
 "Oh, I fancy Oxford is a law unto itself in such 
 matters," the President told her. "And he's not 
 bringing much of a suite. An equerry and a valet!" 
 
 "Yes, I know. And a great mercy, too. I am 
 sometimes even more worried about Colonel Vande- 
 leur. These English-grown Americans are so critical." 
 
 "The Vandeleurs have been born in England for 
 three generations." 
 
 "Yes, I know, dear. But do go now, James, and 
 get rid of your deputation. Charlie Calder is so 
 feather-headed I'm just praying that he won't 
 shake hands in the wrong place or something."
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "I've told him he's on no account to butt in before 
 the ambassador," replied the President. "No need to 
 worry Charlie'll get delivery of the prince all right 
 at the proper time. Hilary isn't staying to help you 
 receive him?" 
 
 "No. I should have loved her to ; but Oh, well, 
 I understand perfectly, James. I think she would 
 feel it, just a little. When one remembers what she 
 was to her father in this house for three long years, 
 and practically mistress of it for the last two it 
 would be hard for her. And who is to know whether 
 'Miss Hilary Lanchester' would convey any idea to 
 His Royal Highness whatever?" 
 
 "She's staying over for the dance, of course." 
 
 "Of course. James that dance ! When I think 
 of the good old simple times when the president of 
 the United States was not expected to vie with the 
 courts of Europe in entertaining, I could just sit and 
 cry. The very most that would have been expected 
 of the Roosevelts or the Tafts would have been a 
 state reception, or possibly a hop of forty or fifty 
 couples to give the Prince a pleasant evening. But 
 we of all people in the world plain people like us 
 have got to be elected to the new ballroom and 
 the state lancers, and the extra aides, and heaven 
 knows what besides and all the world looking at 
 us to see that we do it. James, we are simply not the 
 people." 
 
 3
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Maybe not," said Mr. Phipps, "but I have a sort 
 of feeling that we'll do as well as anybody else in the 
 meantime. Cheer up, little woman. They might 
 have had me in a uniform, and you, too, for all I 
 know. It was a close call a mighty close call." 
 
 "The one thing," his wife told him, "that I 
 wouldn't have had the least objection to. Gold braid 
 an inch thick is what I'd just adore to see you in, 
 James." 
 
 "Then Hilary is coming to the dance?" 
 
 "Oh, yes she's coming. And here she is," went 
 on Mrs. Phipps, as a door opened on the other side 
 of the room. "James, when I think of those Col- 
 orado men and the time they will take, my hair goes 
 three shades grayer. Send him away, Hilary. He 
 saw you at lunch. There's no excuse." 
 
 They laughed at one another understandingly, the 
 President of the United States and the daughter of 
 his old friend and predecessor in office ; and the door 
 closed at last upon Mr. Phipps. Miss Lanchester 
 came into the pretty room towards the pretty lady 
 who sat with such dainty dignity, so charmingly 
 dressed, beside a buhl table in the middle of it. There 
 was a silver bowl of roses on the table, and the glass 
 pendants of an old-fashioned chandelier twinkled 
 overhead. It was an agreeable picture, and Mrs. 
 Phipps, with her delicately lined face that still kept 
 its shell-pinkness, and that air of constantly dealing
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 with small decisions of importance which is so marked 
 in ladies of official position, gave ever so pleasant a 
 key to it. 
 
 "Well, honey, I see you've got your hat on. But 
 you needn't go yet." 
 
 Miss Lanchester smiled, and became at once, for 
 all the world to see, one of the most beautiful people 
 in it. Until she smiled she seemed a tall girl of 
 whom you would say, "How lovely," and pass on, 
 a creature of perfect grace and deep, happy eyes; 
 but the flash of her smile, if you caught it, promptly 
 turned your head to look again. Her face sim- 
 ply was, you admitted and acclaimed it, among the 
 heaven-sent things in a world not too often re- 
 membered by any other the American papers of 
 her father's administration had not said a word too 
 much. Indeed, it was doubtful whether they had 
 said quite enough. Looking back through the files 
 of three years before they seldom mentioned her 
 now it might be noted that the newspapers trum- 
 peted her far more as the single solace of the most 
 successful president since the Civil War as the 
 daughter of the man who had taken the chief magis- 
 tracy from a mob of plutocrats, and held it for a 
 term and a half in the teeth of the biggest bosses the 
 civilized world had yet permitted to exist as the 
 youngest hostess the White House had ever known. 
 Such superlatives appeared to be her highest honor;
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 nobody seemed to think of describing her at the same 
 time as the most beautiful girl in the United States, 
 because, no doubt, nobody could be quite sure that 
 she was. One remembers the tribute of the Wyom- 
 ing Messenger the last time the ex-President toured 
 in the west, taking her with him. "Daughter Hilary 
 looks as good to us, in her own way, as Dada. 
 Though we're not asking any lady to believe that 
 we can't do just as well right here in Wyoming." 
 
 Mrs. Phipps did not think they could do as well 
 in Wyoming or anywhere else. Mrs. Phipps, child- 
 less and loving, gave Hilary the palm a little indis- 
 criminately. I mean for wit as well as for beauty, 
 for culture as well as for grace, for conversation as 
 well as for golf, for example. Hilary had the humor 
 and gaiety of her magnificent health. She had a 
 sweet nature and good brains, and had worked in 
 Paris and in Brussels creditably enough without do- 
 ing wonders. She talked well, it will appear how 
 she talked. Her golf was certainly unexceptionable. 
 
 Miss Lanchester said that she had sent for a taxi, 
 and that she was due in Dupont Circle in half an 
 hour. Meantime she dropped her person, like a 
 long-stemmed rose, in a corner of a sofa. 
 
 "It just worries me to death," said Mrs. Phipps, 
 "to think of your taking a taxi from this house. 
 But literally every last thing with a wheel to it has 
 gone to the station."
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "I give you my word I can still afford a taxi," 
 laughed Hilary. "But for the heat and the smell 
 of the asphalt, and the crowd the Square out there 
 is packed already I would have gone by the Avenue 
 car. It's quite convenient. Did you ever know 
 Washington so hot in June? And you, poor darling, 
 with three entertainments this week." 
 
 Mrs. Phipps sighed, a long, gently fatigued sigh, 
 and waved a palm-leaf fan in front of her lace 
 bosom. She tried to smile her sense of official duty, 
 but only her lower lip expressed resignation. The 
 upper one crowned it with complacence. 
 
 "Hot, my dear! I remember only one June like 
 it. We were living in Syracuse. I hadn't been long 
 married, and I was making strawberry preserve for 
 the first time in my life, coming as I did from a home 
 where such things did themselves. What a lot there 
 is in smells, Hilary. This morning a berry on the 
 electric heater on the sideboard, and those self-seal- 
 ers were all with me again. Partly the weather, no 
 doubt. Well, to think of it! The wheel of time! 
 Doing up my own fruit in a back kitchen in Syracuse, 
 and now waiting for the third son of the late King 
 of England I did so admire that man in the 
 White House in my country's capital. Luckily I 
 have you, Hilary. You are a link. You make it 
 more human." 
 
 "I've just heard," said Hilary, "the most lovely
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 story about him. He really does like us, Mumsie. 
 He specially asked that his commission should be in 
 their Imperial Rifles, why do you think? Because it 
 was once the Royal Americans, and was fighting for 
 the king somewhere in Europe when the Revolution 
 broke out over here and went on fighting for him. 
 And wears to this day the green that came out of our 
 forests. And it's a true story, because Commission- 
 er Longworth told me, who had an ancestor in 
 that regiment. Young Longworth, you know, has 
 been taking a post-graduate course at Oxford, 
 and the Prince made friends with him because, 
 he said, he was a fellow-officer of his great-great- 
 grand-dad's! I think he must be rather a duck, 
 Mumsie." 
 
 "Now isn't that a sweet story! And the Presi- 
 dent tells me they called him 'Burnt Cakes' no, just 
 'Cakes' at Oxford. I'm sure he's quite human. 
 But there's something about royalty one despises 
 oneself, but there is, Hil. Something alarming. I 
 don't know why it should be so." 
 
 "The Blue Room," said Hilary, "is looking its 
 very best. I just poked my nose in. I like the new 
 coverings immensely." 
 
 "The President and I are to receive him there. 
 Then I suppose Major Calder will show him his 
 rooms. He'll want to wash his hands after the train. 
 Perhaps, being a prince, he'll require a bath though 
 
 8
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 it's only four hours from New York, and he must 
 have had one this morning " 
 
 "He will call it a tub," said Hilary. "Our Eng- 
 lish guests always talked about their tubs and with 
 an openness. They don't seem to mind. Bath is a 
 sort of vague expression, but tub well, tub is plain, 
 isn't it?" 
 
 "They are plain, the British. Well, we're giving 
 him half an hour for his ablutions, whatever he calls 
 them. I hope that will be enough to get the dust 
 of the Republic off him. Then we serve tea in the 
 large drawing-room, and I wish we had decided on 
 having it here, for I'm never at my best in that room 
 in the daytime; and I don't suppose we shall have 
 him for another moment so much to ourselves. First 
 impressions go so far. But I insisted on making the 
 tea. A state teapot it may be, but I handle it." 
 
 "Darling, it's an anxious task; but the taxi must 
 be there," observed Hilary. 
 
 "Oh, no they'll tell you. Very likely they've had 
 to telephone there were none on the rank this morn- 
 ing. And, Oh, my dear talk of fatigue what do 
 you think? He insists on coming down to breakfast ! 
 Which means, I suppose, that I must and will, though 
 the President forbids it." 
 
 "Well," said Hilary, "I wouldn't mar my mar- 
 ried life for him if he were the heir to the throne, 
 which he isn't."
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Oh, yes, you would, dear, if it were a case of 
 doing the proper thing or not doing it. I won't have 
 him writing home to Queen Alma Patricia that the 
 hostess of the White House spends most of her time 
 in bed. I'll struggle down." 
 
 "They say he isn't strong himself," said Hilary. 
 "I should make him breakfast in his room, if I 
 were you." 
 
 "Anything but! Very anxious, people about him 
 have always been. And apparently one can't 'make' 
 him do anything whatever. Oh, dear," sighed Mrs. 
 Phipps, "I confess I sometimes wish he were here 
 and away again." 
 
 "I suppose you've got some idea of his habits 
 from the Embassy. I remember we heard privately, 
 when the Russian Crown Prince came." 
 
 "We inquired, naturally. Apparently, he doesn't 
 wish to be indulged in any way. That's why he's so 
 firm about breakfast. If he only knew ! Wishes to 
 conform to the ways of the family in every respect, 
 Sir Arthur said. I wonder if he'd enjoy my raw 
 fruit luncheon. It's doing me such a world of good, 
 Hilary! Hilary tell me what relation exactly is 
 your godmother to this young man?" 
 
 "Aunt!" said Miss Lanchester, with an eye that 
 brightened in spite of itself. 
 
 "I thought so. Aunt! I wish I were aunt to his 
 godmother. I mean I wish his godmother were my 
 
 10
 
 HTS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 aunt it would be something to talk about. I envy 
 you, Hilary. And you can say quite naturally, 'How 
 is my godmother?' when it would be liberty to say, 
 'How is your aunt?' She is your godmother, all 
 right, all right. You have that much definite prop- 
 erty in the Family. And how exactly did it happen? 
 Recount me the tale, because I don't mind telling 
 you, dear, I'm relying on it myself. When conver- 
 sation absolutely fails, I can say, 'We have here a 
 young person who is goddaughter to your aunt, 
 Georgina, Duchess of Altenburg.' ' 
 
 "She wasn't the Duchess of Altenburg then," 
 laughed Hilary. "She was Princess Georgina, the 
 late King John's eldest sister, and she was over here 
 with her uncle, who was governor-general of Can- 
 ada, and they were staying with my uncle, Ralph 
 Russell in New York, and so was I, being at that time 
 three weeks old and half an orphan. My uncle, you 
 know, had been ambassador over there." 
 
 "Indeed I do. The loveliest man and greatest 
 master of American prose of his generation. Are we 
 likely to forget him? Go on, chicken. The Princess 
 cooed over you in your poor little cradle, and " 
 
 "That's as much as I remember. But there was 
 a private christening, and I've always been told she 
 held me, and that my behavior was beautiful." 
 
 "And you've got your silver mug. I'm sure I've 
 heard a silver mug mentioned." 
 
 ii
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Father's got it. He considers it his trophy 
 I'm sure I don't know why. That taxi is running into 
 dollars; but before I go I must tell you there's an 
 immense discussion " 
 
 Mrs. Phipps dropped her fan. "About what in 
 the world now? I thought we had settled every- 
 thing, Hilary. I can't reopen " 
 
 "Nothing like that. But not a living girl in 
 Washington except me seems to know whether she 
 wants to curtsey to him or not." 
 
 "What utter nonsense! We Americans don't 
 curtsey, and never did." 
 
 "Oh, yes, mumsie, once we did. To our own gov- 
 ernors, in the streets of New York." 
 
 "Well, all I can say is we've learned better. What 
 utter nonsense !" 
 
 "I don't know it's a pretty custom. They used 
 to make us do it at Mademoiselle's in Brussels. And 
 I always feel like curtseying to the President. But 
 that's because I love him." 
 
 "Then you think it ought to be done. You want 
 to do it." 
 
 "No, indeed! I'm the only one who is quite sure 
 she won't. Margery Passmore, and Betty Chase, 
 and the Carroll girls, who have been presented in 
 England, are at the bottom of what I call a per- 
 fectly ridiculous fuss. Kate Carroll says the Queen 
 curtseys to King John every time she leaves the table, 
 
 12
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 and that all royalties expect it, and that she isn't 
 going to be guilty of any rudeness. But I say with 
 you, darling, what is that to us?" 
 
 "If Prince Alfred expects it," began Mrs. Phipps 
 firmly, "he will just " 
 
 A sound struck through to them from the world 
 outside, a sound of cheering, a sound that grew 
 louder and louder. 
 
 "Hilary it's the Prince! He's before his time! 
 Ring ! Send for the President. Quick ! Oh, where 
 is James? I will not appear in the Blue Room alone. 
 No, don't go. Wait till James comes, ducky " 
 
 But the President in his library was still besieged 
 by the deputation from Colorado, to whom the ear 
 of the chief executive was of more importance than 
 the whole of any imperial person on earth. Arrival 
 by automobile is also a very rapid process, and no 
 doubt Major Calder, A.D.C., was a little flurried 
 at finding the Blue Room empty. At all events, a 
 moment later the door of Mrs. Phipps's private 
 drawing-room opened to admit, not the President, 
 but a group of heated-looking young men, one of 
 whom stood half a head taller than the rest, and was 
 smiling, eagerly, delightfully 
 
 And there was Mrs. Phipps, all alone but for 
 Hilary, giving the most charming American welcome 
 imaginable to Prince Alfred of England, and present- 
 ing Hilary. And there was Hilary who curtsied! 
 
 13
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 AT the moment of Prince Alfred's arrival at 
 the White House, his aunt, Princess Geor- 
 gina, Duchess of Altenburg, was sitting with 
 her lady-in-waiting under an elm in a delightful cor- 
 ner of the gardens of Kensington Palace, talking of 
 the visit of a European potentate to London. 
 Ching, who was a Pekinese, was sitting there, too. 
 Princess Georgina was the only surviving sister of 
 the late King. A widow and childless, she had been 
 plainly meant by heaven to be all in all to his three 
 motherless boys, John, Victor, and Alfred. How 
 she had fulfilled this duty the press amply testified; 
 it was one of England's idylls. Report made her 
 more responsible than any other person for the mar- 
 riage of the young Prince John just before he as- 
 cended the throne, which promised, heaven always 
 helping, so happily. Among her intimates, her great 
 present anxiety was understood to be "Victor's 
 affair"; but with an influence so responsible she was 
 naturally never without an anxiety of some sort. 
 Grave considerations, not always to be mentioned, 
 
 14
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 lurked constantly behind her smile, which was other- 
 wise cordial; and it was easy to see that her shapely 
 white fingers held with every sagacity many strings. 
 
 It was very sweet and quiet there in the garden. 
 The Princess was knitting. Her companion, Lady 
 Althea Dawe, was crocheting a purple silk necktie 
 for a brother who was fighting the Af ridis elsewhere. 
 He would wear it when he came home. 
 
 "Do listen, Princess, to that darling dove," said 
 Lady Althea. 
 
 "Sweet thing here in the heart of London! 
 How our Heavenly Father blesses us, when all is 
 said and done. Socialism may be coming and capital 
 may be going, but we have always the doves, Althea ; 
 let us remember that." 
 
 The bird flew to another branch, and the eyes of 
 the two ladies followed it with affection. Ching, 
 too, looked up. 
 
 "Sweetheart," commented the Princess, "Althea, 
 feel his nose. But as to our visitors. Whatever hap- 
 pens, dear, I do not wish too much contact with Him 
 at the garden party this afternoon. Last night at 
 dinner was enough. Nothing but explanations of 
 how absurd and ridiculous and impossible it was that 
 the two nations should ever go to war. One could 
 only agree, though all the time longing to say, 'I 
 don't at all think so,' as one saw quite plainly that 
 he didn't. Really, he put me out of temper. So
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 patronizing. Her, if you like. But if you see me 
 involved with Him, come up to us with a message." 
 
 "He seems to me," said Lady Althea boldly, "a 
 domineering young man." 
 
 "Was there ever a member of that Family who 
 wasn't? Words cannot express how thankful I am 
 that our young people are so very different. Which 
 reminds me, love you must help me to contrive two 
 words with Count Wettersee to-day." 
 
 "The one with the bald head and curly hair round 
 it the almost good-looking one?" said Althea. 
 "Oh, yes." 
 
 "Victor's affair seems almost, under the guidance 
 of Providence, happily settled." Princess Georgina 
 again put down her knitting. "They are to meet 
 in July. And I hope I shall like her better than I 
 like most Russians. But there is always Alfie." 
 
 "Dear Prince Alfred," said Lady Althea, with 
 suspended needles. "Yes, indeed. But isn't it early 
 days?" 
 
 "It is. Still, one must be thinking. You know 
 what was nearest my heart for John once too 
 young then, I admitted, and, of course, when he 
 actually fell in love in another quarter, what was 
 there to say or do except smooth away all difficulties? 
 But she remains. Older now. In many ways im- 
 proved." 
 
 Lady Althea's ball of silk rolled upon the ground, 
 
 16
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 and Ching twitched an ear after it. Lady Althea 
 arrested her movement to pick it up. 
 
 "The Archduchess Sophia Ludovica !" she ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 "Sh sh, my love! How do you know there is 
 not a reporter behind that bush? Let us refer to 
 her as 'S.L.' All the reasons, my dear Althea, which 
 I urged in favor of S.L. with reference to my eldest 
 nephew hold equally well in connection with my 
 youngest." 
 
 "I suppose they do," murmured Lady Althea. 
 
 "Of course, she being at that time only sixteen 
 I meant John to wait at least two years, poor dear 
 nobody was actually sounded. There is every rea- 
 son to believe, however, that such an arrangement 
 would be gladly welcomed. Heinrich has more 
 nieces than he knows what to do with." 
 
 "I should think so indeed," said Lady Althea. 
 
 "You know very little about it," the Princess went 
 on absently. "Still, I wish it could be as easily taken 
 for granted," she continued, "that things will be 
 smooth on this side of the North Sea. I often feel 
 that one couldn't wholly count on my nephew in a 
 matter of this kind. I'm afraid he cares very little 
 about women a good thing, of course, in some 
 ways. I know you will respect my confidence, Althea 
 Alfred is not my favorite nephew. In a sense all 
 are dear, but in that boy I always mistrust a hidden 
 
 17
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 obstinacy, a determination to take his own line, that 
 is almost shall I say middle class?" 
 
 The Princess knitted with the firmness she would 
 display toward anything of the kind. 
 
 "However," she continued, "I don't know why 
 we should go to meet trouble. Yes, I must have a 
 word with that old man. These things cannot be 
 thought about too soon. And I should like to pour 
 in just a drop of oil about Alfie's American visit. In 
 the present state of feeling between the two coun- 
 tries they won't like him any better for going there 
 us either for sending him. They must be made to 
 understand how absolutely non-political the visit is, 
 in every sense of the term. I shall sum it up in two 
 words 'magneto-electrics.' Alfred's passion for 
 such things must have reached their ears. Magneto- 
 electrics must explain everything." 
 
 "What a good idea," said Lady Althea. 
 
 "And health, of course. After the terrible strain 
 of those foolish Oxford examinations. Very modern 
 and very regrettable, I shall always consider that 
 idea of Honours schools. So unnecessary. I ask you, 
 at the worst, is he likely ever to earn his living as a 
 schoolmaster?" 
 
 "Oh, but," deprecated Lady Althea, "one felt so 
 proud of him! And, as all the papers said, think 
 of the example." 
 
 "I admit the example if it was really needed. 
 
 18
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 But was it? No, Althea. No. Not at such a cost. 
 And the friendships the intimate friendships he 
 was allowed to contract there. Rhodes scholars, and 
 such persons. Very well and very worthy, no doubt, 
 but hardly quite suitable, shall we say? A young 
 man named Youghall, a Canadian, I believe, quite a 
 bosom companion well, you know, Althea, I may 
 be old-fashioned in my ideas, but I cannot " 
 
 "I know, dearest." 
 
 "Nor do I altogether approve for Alfred of 
 this tour. He is altogether too American in many 
 of his ideas already. And the mind at his age is so 
 plastic. Wiser to wait much wiser to wait. But 
 who listens to an old woman like me nowadays? Go 
 he must, and go he did, a week ago last Wednesday. 
 I said all I could." 
 
 "Everybody listens to you, darling," said Lady 
 Althea. 
 
 "There is just one thing against S.L.," meditated 
 Princess Georgina, knitting faster than ever. "Her 
 being sent, in that promiscuous fashion, to a board- 
 ing-school. I always remember that foolish idea of 
 her mother's. I wonder He allowed it, knowing 
 what her future almost must be. However, I know 
 her to be a good girl. Not too pretty, I confess, 
 unless she has changed of late, but with a sound, do- 
 mestic training and all the true old ideas about what 
 a woman should do and be. Yes, it would be ideal. 
 
 19
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 I said just one word to that excellent fellow Vande- 
 leur who has gone with Alfred." 
 
 "A charming man," sighed Lady Althea. "Such 
 a good appointment, and all owing to you, dearest." 
 
 "I think so. I think so. There is no democratic 
 nonsense about him, at all events. And it was by 
 no means so easy to find the right person in that re- 
 spect, Althea, as you might suppose." 
 
 "No, indeed. You yourself have been in Amer- 
 ica, have you not, Princess?" said Lady Althea. 
 
 "Dear me what memories you evoke. Yes, I 
 have. Twenty years ago or is it twenty-one? A 
 slip of a girl I was, staying with my Uncle William 
 in Ottawa. We went across to New York for some 
 junketing, and put up with now what was his 
 name? A former ambassador to us here. No, it's 
 gone. But I remember what pains we took to be 
 civil, and how I enjoyed it all. America is enjoyable, 
 you know, when you are young. It would upset me 
 now. But here's Flack," broke off the Princess, roll- 
 ing up her work, as an elderly person with an im- 
 portant air appeared, and began to waddle toward 
 them. "Mistress Flack, come to tell me it is nearly 
 two o'clock, and time for me to wash my hands for 
 luncheon." With which, followed by Flack who 
 gathered Ching in her arms, the ladies disappeared 
 within the nearest door of the palace. 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur, C.B., had been selected to 
 
 20
 
 HTS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 accompany Prince Alfred partly because the King 
 immensely liked him, partly on account of his com- 
 parative youth and positive spirits, and partly again 
 because of his American descent, which would do 
 much, it was thought, to put the Prince in touch with 
 what he might otherwise fail to understand, and thus 
 help him indirectly to make himself pleasant to his 
 hosts. The Vandeleurs had returned to England 
 about the same time as the Astors, and apparently 
 for much the same reasons; but the serious attrac- 
 tions of public duty in their readopted country had 
 passed them by. They had been content to arrive 
 and remain smart, wealthy people, assuming only the 
 lighter responsibilities that attach to their class. 
 Two of the later Vandeleurs had been masters of 
 hounds of an historic hunt. One had raised and 
 commanded a yeomanry regiment in Sussex, one had 
 served on the staff of a viceroy of India; and this 
 Colonel Adrian Vandeleur, of the 7th Home Guards, 
 remaining a bachelor and ripening happily under the 
 most favorable conditions, was probably the finest, 
 roundest, best flavored fruit on the tree. Such an 
 appointment as this with Prince Alfred would have 
 been impossible a generation earlier. Even a gen- 
 eration earlier it would have been too quick a return 
 to republican shores in circumstances so conspicuous, 
 bearing a king's commission, and wearing his blue 
 ribbon of the Bath. But once again the political in- 
 
 21
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 stinct of the royal house had perfectly asserted itself 
 as to time, place, and susceptibilities; the moment 
 shone bright and right; the great American nation 
 accepted a compliment, and slapped Colonel Adrian 
 Vandeleur on the back not without a certain pride. 
 The dinner that first night at the White House 
 had been of the quietest, nobody being present ex- 
 cept the Staff, the President, and Mrs. Phipps. 
 Vandy had been splendid, playing up to the Presi- 
 dent, who twinkled with humor at being played up 
 to, and said things that seemed to Prince Alfred of 
 quite unapproachable originality. The President's 
 humor was of a slow, rich, dignified and unconquer- 
 able gravity, which was the first genuinely demo- 
 cratic product the young Englishman had encoun- 
 tered. Nobody in his own country had ever met 
 him in quite that conversational spirit, and after the 
 first moment of his immersion, when he blinked a 
 little in the new element, he took to it cordially and 
 with the happiest confidence. The President was a 
 capital fellow to begin with, if one wanted to like 
 the Americans, especially at his own dinner table; 
 and Prince Alfred's desire to like the Americans 
 amounted to a romance. Mrs. Phipps, sitting beside 
 him, felt her heart warm toward her young guest. 
 She watched him through the evening with a moved 
 expression ; but she did not become actually motherly 
 until next morning at breakfast, in which bacon and 
 
 22
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 marmalade figured so impressively as to make a hu- 
 morous reference unavoidable. Mrs. Phipps then 
 learned what the Prince was really dying for, and 
 her opportunity rolled out before her, from buck- 
 wheat cakes indefinitely. Nothing could be too na- 
 tional for Prince Alfred's enterprise or too forgotten 
 for Mrs. Phipps's good will. She promised all 
 things, in the assurance that what the chef had. never 
 heard of a certain old Sally of the household, as black 
 as your hat, would know like her apron string. By 
 the time hot waffles had been boldly preferred to 
 cold toast, and the marmalade had retired before the 
 glittering jug of maple syrup, the bond between 
 Prince Alfred and Mrs. Phipps was complete. 
 
 "Now, Prince," said the President in his library, 
 removing a particularly fragrant cigar to say it, "we 
 want to give you the very best time we can. To 
 begin with, you might take a more comfortable chair 
 than that I don't know how you came to select 
 that chair. It's the one I keep for the heads of depu- 
 tations. If anything under a man could make his 
 words brief and his stay short, that's the article of 
 furniture. But some fellows would enjoy themselves 
 on a rack. Try this," and, with one friendly hand, 
 he pushed a big armchair into more conversational 
 relation with his own. 
 
 Prince Alfred dropped into it, but did not yield 
 himself to the deep embrace. He sat upright and 
 
 23
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 square-shouldered, pulling a little fast and nervously 
 at his cigarette, vividly attentive. 
 
 "It's awfully good of you, Mr. President," he 
 said. "I hope you realize that just being here is very 
 interesting to me." 
 
 "We must make it so it's up to us to make it 
 so," said Mr. Phipps pleasantly, with a gesture of 
 acknowledgment too brief for a bow, too serious for 
 a nod, that sent his lower chin further still into his 
 collar. "I've talked it over with your Embassy, and 
 one or two fellows of our State Department, and 
 we've run up a sort of programme. But it's quite 
 provisional nothing in it made of reinforced con- 
 crete at all " 
 
 "You use a lot of that, don't you?" said Prince 
 Alfred. "More than any country in the world. I 
 saw the figures the other day. You invented it, too, 
 I believe?" 
 
 "Did we? I had an idea it was French. But 
 you may be right about that." 
 
 "Are there any mills in Washington? I've seen 
 the process at home, and I'd like to compare it." 
 
 "Well, nothing very great. You see, this city has 
 never made any sort of claim to industrial impor- 
 tance, Prince we'll show you all that out West. 
 You would like a look at our Smithsonian Institute, I 
 presume. I've had the curator notified to have it 
 swept, anyhow " 
 
 24
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Is it an art gallery?" asked Prince Alfred, with 
 a slightly fallen expression. 
 
 "No. No I sympathize with you. I've been 
 dragged around Europe. No, it isn't. It's relics, 
 chiefly relics of great Americans. The clothes of 
 Washington, the bones of the mastodon " 
 
 "It sounds most interesting. I've been working 
 lately at our last revolutionary period " 
 
 "Cromwell?" said Mr. Phipps. 
 
 "No Washington," smiled Prince Alfred, and 
 his host, having nothing quite ready, made him an- 
 other bow of acknowledgment. 
 
 "Yes," he remembered, just in time, "and with 
 considerable credit, too." 
 
 "Oh, precious little. I had the best historical 
 coach in England, and I only just pulled it off." 
 
 "I know what Oxford honors are. Your First was 
 an achievement, Prince Alfred, to be proud of. 
 Were any of our fellows up?" 
 
 "Two chaps, I think. Burroughs of Texas, and 
 a fellow from New Hampshire." 
 
 "Either of them do anything?" 
 
 "I believe Burroughs got a second. The best 
 Americans seemed to prefer other schools this year," 
 Prince Alfred told him, coloring a little. 
 
 "So you -beat us on our own ground," retrieved 
 the President, touching, with a luxurious little finger, 
 an inch and half of cigar ash into a tray. 
 
 25
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "It's surprising," his guest returned lightly, "when 
 you look into it, how many of the decisive scenes 
 were enacted at Westminster. However, I've tried 
 as best I could to get hold of the experiment, and 
 now I'm above all things anxious to see the result. 
 Where shall I find it best and fullest, Mr. President? 
 In Congress?" 
 
 "There's Mount Vernon," went on the President, 
 eyeing him thoughtfully. "The home of the first 
 man who held my office. Down the river. Most 
 people want to see that. We have also, at Arling- 
 ton, a very beautiful cemetery, where lie many of 
 the heroes of our Civil War. 
 
 'On Fame's eternal camping ground 
 Their silent tents are spread.' 
 
 No doubt you've heard of it." 
 
 "No," said Prince Alfred honestly. "I'm afraid 
 I hadn't. Those are fine lines." His face assumed 
 a serious aspect. "I should like very much to see 
 the cemetery," he said. 
 
 The President laughed, with enjoyment, the laugh 
 that need no longer be contained. 
 
 "But that was not your primary object in looking 
 us up, Prince," he said. "You can give us points on 
 cemeteries, I admit, in almost any part of Europe. 
 Well, our talk-shop is open to you. We've no dis- 
 tinguished strangers' gallery, I'm afraid, but there's 
 
 26
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 the Diplomatic box and the Senators' gallery, which 
 answer the same purpose in both the House and the 
 Senate; and our Speaker will be gratified to meet you 
 on his own preserves any time Congress is in session. 
 I presented him yesterday afternoon Mr. Briscoe. 
 Bit of a Tartar, Briscoe. It was owing to him that 
 the last spittoon disappeared some time back from 
 the corridors, amid bitter opposition from the West. 
 I hope you won't be too disappointed to find no 
 spittoons." 
 
 "I never could understand the objection to them," 
 replied Prince Alfred. "If people must spit." 
 
 "Briscoe didn't seem to think them nice," said 
 Mr. Phipps gravely, "and he had a considerable fol- 
 lowing. However, you may be right." He touched 
 a bell. "Just ask Mr. Austin," he said to the boy 
 who appeared, "to come here." 
 
 The strong-featured and sedate-looking man who 
 appeared was duly presented. He gave Prince Al- 
 fred over his spectacles a deferential glance, that 
 nevertheless compared him with the value of the time 
 he was taking up. 
 
 "What, in your opinion, Austin, is the first occa- 
 sion on which the House will be doing itself credit?" 
 asked the President. 
 
 Mr. Austin smiled. 
 
 "It depends, sir, on what you call credit," he said. 
 "But there's likely to be a pretty considerable dis- 
 
 27
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 play of talent this afternoon on the Pacific Coast 
 Defences Bill." 
 
 "Rather soon and rather dull," demurred Mr. 
 Phipps, looking at Prince Alfred. 
 
 "Not a bit too soon for me and of the great- 
 est interest," responded that young man, throwing 
 his cigarette into the fireplace with a gesture that 
 announced him ready to start at any moment. 
 
 "All right," said the President. "Send Calder 
 here, Austin, and get somebody to telephone the city 
 papers, and the Associated. We told them the 
 Smithsonian, Queen Victoria's statue, and the Pen- 
 sion Bureau, subject to change. We couldn't pos- 
 sibly know that His Royal Highness would have 
 such a strong preference for the contemporary." 
 
 "I hope " began the Prince. 
 
 "Quite right," agreed the President. "I'm built 
 that way myself."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PRINCE, I want to have you meet at the dance 
 to-night," said President Phipps at the break- 
 fast table, "the loveliest girl in the United 
 States of America." 
 
 The President covered a neat mound of griddle- 
 cakes with maple syrup, clipped the silver jug on the 
 last drop, and looked round the table in a manner 
 which challenged contradiction. It came promptly 
 from an accredited source. 
 
 "James, you are perfectly ridiculous about that 
 child. Probably His Highness won't think so at all. 
 And, besides, he has met her." 
 
 "I mean Hilary," said Mr. Phipps, with a slightly 
 daunted eye, at which a laugh went round the table, 
 much enjoyed by the aides-de-camp. 
 
 "Of course, you mean Hilary," Mrs. Phipps re- 
 torted. "Who would dream that you meant anybody 
 else, you poor, infatuated person ! Prince Alfred met 
 Hilary the day of his arrival the moment of his ar- 
 rival ! When you weren't there, but irrigating in Col- 
 orado and it's a mercy it didn't get into the papers." 
 
 29
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "A tall girl " put in Prince Alfred. 
 
 "You see, he remembers himself." 
 
 "He could not forget," declared Colonel Vande- 
 leur. "I shall remember to my dying day. Awfully 
 fit, too, she looked. Might have ridden to hounds 
 all her life." 
 
 "She has," said Mrs. Phipps, "in Long Island. 
 At all events, since she came back from school at 
 Brussels." 
 
 "I don't seem to have met her in town," said 
 Vandeleur. 
 
 "You would not," the President told him dryly. 
 "Miss Lanchester is the daughter of my predecessor 
 here, and since she grew up she's had very little time 
 for foreign travel." 
 
 "But, of course," exclaimed Colonel Vandeleur 
 with self-reproach, "Lanchester of course. Won- 
 derful fellow, Henry Lanchester! You must have 
 been proud to succeed him, sir." 
 
 "I was," said Mr. Phipps, "and I wish I could feel 
 comfortable in any of his clothes. But Henry isn't 
 stock size." 
 
 "James," said his wife warningly. " 'Filberts.' 
 I say, 'Filberts' " she addressed the table "when 
 the President is disrespectful to the Chief Executive 
 in favor of that great man, Henry Lanchester. But 
 it doesn't matter what I say, he will go on doing it." 
 
 "You should try 'chestnuts,' Mrs. Phipps," said 
 
 30
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Major Calder slyly, and the laugh was again at the 
 President's expense. 
 
 "I hear," said Prince Alfred, accommodating Mrs. 
 Phipps's big Persian cat more comfortably on his 
 knee, "that Mr. Lanchester's health is much better 
 than it was. That breakdown of his people were 
 awfully anxious about it in England. He was very 
 much admired on our side, besides the feeling that, 
 in one or two matters which you, sir, will know more 
 about than I do, he gave us an awfully square deal." 
 
 The President inclined his head as if the compli- 
 ment were a personal one. 
 
 "Lanchester was fortunate in his opportunities, 
 Prince," he said. "If I weren't forbidden to talk 
 politics at breakfast, I could tell you something about 
 the courage with which he took them. His health is 
 practically re-established. That summer in Alaska 
 last year did the business. Marvelous country for 
 camping. He's up there again just now, looking 
 after a silver mine he put his foot into last year. 
 Pretty deep mine too, and pretty high grade. I'm 
 afraid Henry will roll out a good deal too well 
 plated." 
 
 "Struck it rich, has he?" asked Vandeleur. "But 
 what's the objection?" 
 
 "Too valuable to his country plain, Colonel. A 
 good many people hope to see him back some day 
 where he was before."
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "I don't believe that will ever happen, James," 
 asserted Mrs. Phipps. "Sharif! Prince that cat 
 is giving you no peace. Henry Lanchester may be 
 all you make him out to be, but the United States of 
 America isn't favorably disposed to third-term presi- 
 dents. Too " 
 
 "Too " repeated Prince Alfred mischievously. 
 
 "Too discouraging for the other aspirants, 
 Prince," Mrs. Phipps saved herself. "We have so 
 many, you know." 
 
 Mrs. Phipps and her guest laughed together in 
 the happiest understanding. Prince Alfred stroked 
 Sharif with the consciousness that he had never felt 
 more at home than in this gay and impulsive little 
 lady's house. 
 
 "Henry Lanchester," said Mr. Phipps heavily, 
 "has only been elected once. To succeed to a post 
 made vacant by the act of God, such as poor 
 Allingham's apoplexy, doesn't count in this coun- 
 try." 
 
 "But why should Mr. Lanchester's silver mine 
 prevent his returning to office?" asked Prince Alfred. 
 "With us I think it would be rather a recommen- 
 dation." 
 
 "Ah, well there's the difference," Mr. Phipps 
 told him. "You consider that the possession of 
 wealth frees a man's mind for public duty and it's 
 up to us to acknowledge that yours is the logical 
 
 32
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 view, and the dignified one. But this country has a 
 liking for poor men in politics. Too many rich men 
 out of them, I expect. We put a fellow in here to 
 watch the bosses we've no time to waste watching 
 him. The camel and the needle's eye is a workable 
 proposition compared with an American multi- 
 millionaire and any sort of public office." 
 
 "That's awfully queer," reflected Prince Alfred, 
 peeling a banana. 
 
 "So the old Siwash woman who led Henry to the 
 spot where the lump came from may not have done 
 him such a good turn as she thought, or the country 
 either," went on the President. "There's one com- 
 fort such things take time up there. Financing, 
 road-building, operating it runs into years before 
 you know where you are. I'll allow him to get it in 
 good shape to leave to Hilary." 
 
 "Hilary's not badly off already," remarked Mrs. 
 Phipps. 
 
 "Every cent of it from her mother," asserted the 
 President with an emphatic hand upon the table. 
 "Till he went to Alaska, no man alive could prove 
 money on Henry Lanchester. He simply had no 
 room for it in his clothes." 
 
 The President leaned his large bulk back in his 
 chair and looked round his household with a smile. 
 It was a heart-warming smile, and took the place of 
 many things that he might have said. 
 
 33
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Thus disarmed he made an easy target for his 
 wife. 
 
 "He probably had more room in them than the 
 man who came after him, anyhow," she let fly, and 
 Mr. Phipps's broad frame shook with acknowledg- 
 ment. 
 
 "Well," he chuckled, as they left the table, "I 
 shall ask your opinion to-morrow, Prince, when 
 you've seen my little girl among the other American 
 beauties on the floor to-night. I promise you shall 
 meet her I'll see to it myself." 
 
 "That would be awfully good of you," responded 
 Prince Alfred. "I had the honor, as Mrs. Phipps 
 says, but in case Miss Lanchester does not remember 
 me " 
 
 Mr. President Phipps very nearly dug England's 
 third son in the ribs. Instead, he reflected inwardly, 
 "Pretty good for manners." Then he glanced at 
 the Prince, and as the shrewd amusement twinkled 
 out of his eyes, said to himself, "I'm blessed if he 
 didn't mean it." 
 
 As they went up the stairs to their quarters, Colo- 
 nel Vandeleur, with one hand on Prince Alfred's 
 shoulder, turned back to the President. 
 
 "If you really want to show him something he 
 hasn't seen before," said the unprincipled Vandy, 
 "produce a plain-looking girl." 
 
 There were bundles and bundles of English let- 
 
 34
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 ters, the first mail in since their arrival. Very much 
 like anybody's letters, only so many of them, fat ones 
 and fashionable ones, and bills, advertisements of 
 aeroplanes and motors, circulars from wine mer- 
 chants, bucket-shops, and money-lenders, a brief 
 epistle signed "Yours affectionately, John"; another 
 not so well spelled from the man in Farnborough 
 who was looking after Your Royal Highness's dog. 
 There were some newspapers, too, his Popular Sci- 
 ence Weekly that he always took in, and the Times, 
 his Aunt Georgina's copy, with the Financial Supple- 
 ments taken out to save postage, addressed to him 
 by her own hand. There was a letter, too, from the 
 Princess, one of the fat ones. It had "Kensington 
 Palace" boldly stamped across the flap, and was the 
 first Prince Alfred opened. His Aunt Georgina was 
 the most faithful letter-writer in the family. No 
 one in absence could escape her, and Prince Alfred 
 always opened her letters first, to be kept in touch 
 and get it over. 
 
 It began very brightly and chattily, as the Duchess 
 of Altenburg's letters always did. She bent first to 
 the consideration of public affairs; her pen did its 
 duty by the events of the week in due recognition of 
 their claims to notice. The weather had suddenly 
 turned wet and rainy, very bad, she feared, for the 
 poor farmers, whose interests she always felt to be 
 the special charge of Providence. Alfred must have 
 
 35
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 been appalled, as they all were, by the shocking col- 
 liery disaster at Rhonndha. Had he seen dear John's 
 extraordinarily plucky behavior in the papers going 
 down with the first party of rescuers in spite of all 
 that was very rightly said to deter him? Nobody 
 could be more thankful than she that John had in- 
 herited his father's priceless gift of sympathy with 
 the afflicted, but there were lengths to which he 
 should not permit it to carry him, and she was glad 
 to see that the dear old Times had given him a good 
 scolding. There was a word about the fall of the 
 French Ministry, for which she was perfectly certain 
 that poor, unfortunate M. Pinaud was far from re- 
 sponsible, whatever they may say, and then the 
 Princess passed on to just the echo of a whisper of 
 gossip from St. Petersburg, which she disbelieved 
 absolutely, and only mentioned lest it should reach 
 her nephew from some other source. It had to do 
 with the projected union of one of the Russian Grand 
 Dukes with the little Archduchess Sophie Ludovica 
 of Sternberg-Hofstein "my dear little friend So- 
 phie, to whom I have been attached since she was a 
 flaxen-haired tot of five. . . . 
 
 "Most unsuitable. He is fifty, she twenty on her 
 next birthday, and young at that in appearance, 
 though with quite a modest stock of cleverness in 
 that sleek little head. You will perhaps hardly re- 
 member her she was in the Backfisch stage when 
 
 36
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 you saw her last, though even then showing character 
 and ideas of her own to an extent that surprised 
 one in a German girl. I remember laughing at 
 her sturdy remark that she 'would prefer not to 
 marry at all, but if it was necessary' she 'would choose 
 an Englishman, as they made the best husbands.' It 
 was an amusing preference, but I have better reasons 
 than that for believing that there is nothing whatever 
 in the Russian report. By the way, I have had a 
 charming letter from Sophie, full of her studies and 
 her fresh young impressions of the life about her, 
 and I think it not improbable that she may accom- 
 pany her cousin, Princess Konigsmark, to Scotland 
 this autumn, where the Princess has taken Clavis- 
 more from the Maccleughs you remember frown- 
 ing, battlemented Clavismore? No bad refuge from 
 a pursuing Grand Duke, say I." 
 
 Inquiries and recommendations as to her nephew's 
 health filled two good pages, after which the Prin- 
 cess exclaimed that she must not forget his kind hosts 
 the Americans, and inquired cordially after them. 
 She was sure that by now Alfred would be impressed, 
 as he could be nowhere else in the world, with a sense 
 of gigantic enterprise and "go." The Americans 
 more than any other people had the genius of great 
 undertakings one imagines the royal lady achiev- 
 ing this phrase as both true and quotable. They quite 
 worked one up at least, that was her recollection. 
 
 37
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Princess Georgina grieved to think that although 
 her remembrance of dear America and her delightful 
 visit was so vivid, she could think of no dear Amer- 
 ican who could reasonably be expected to remember 
 her. Time and distance alas! Yet there was one 
 upon whom she considered that she had a special 
 claim, if not to remembrance at least to recognition. 
 Did Alfred know that the Princess had a goddaugh- 
 ter in America? Where, she grieved to say, she 
 knew not yet it was not altogether like a needle 
 in a haystack, for the poor baby's father had since 
 achieved presidential distinction Lanchester his 
 name was. Only ceased to be president, to the best 
 of the Princess's recollection, three years before; but 
 she confessed she had neither the brains nor the 
 memory ("The tall girl!" exclaimed Alfred, and 
 did not skip another line) for American politics. 
 Be that as might be learned, the baby was just a little 
 motherless relative, when the Princess became its 
 sponsor, of a former ambassador to St. James's, an 
 old dear, long since -dead. A sweet little episode, 
 and she had often felt compunctions, and been mean- 
 ing to write ; but somehow she was afraid it had just 
 remained a little episode. For one thing, people 
 usually came, and the little Lanchester never had 
 shy, perhaps. At all events, should Alfred meet a 
 Miss Lanchester stranger things have happened 
 an only child whose father was once president, and 
 
 38
 
 'HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 who had lost her mother when she was very young, 
 he might just say a kindly word, and hint that if she 
 should find her way to London her godmother would 
 be very pleased to see her, and possibly to present 
 her at court. And, remembering as she did what an 
 excellent impression that little act of kindness made, 
 the Princess strongly recommended that, should any 
 similar opportunity present itself to her nephew, he 
 should not let it go by. "The ceremony," added Aunt 
 Georgina, "is very brief, and the mug is nominal."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 IT was altogether unprecedented, a royal visitor 
 in Washington in June. As a rule, no president 
 would be there for him to visit, no Con- 
 gress sitting for him to attend. Prince Alfred de- 
 clared himself lucky, and behaved as if he thought 
 so. 
 
 "Exactly as he is about everything," Colonel Van- 
 deleur confided to them. "Mad keen to see the 
 works" ; and his perspiring hosts, feeling a little guilty 
 about the temperature, were glad of the reassurance. 
 
 "We hope you will be able to support it, but we 
 can't expect you to like it," said the President, pri- 
 vately very well aware that his young guest was liking 
 every minute of it, liking it tremendously, and in no 
 mood to listen to Colonel Vandeleur's hints that a 
 day or two dropped off the end of the visit would 
 be quite understood in the light of the daily tem- 
 peratures. The President, with Congress, as it were, 
 in his pocket and a world of interesting informa- 
 tion at the touch of a button, could enjoy a little 
 insincerity in talking that way; it was Mrs. Phipps 
 
 40
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 and Major Calder who really meant it. Dinners 
 and lunches were inevitable; people had to dine 
 and lunch whatever the thermometer said, and, as 
 we know, Mrs. Phipps had thrown in breakfast, so 
 far as she was concerned personally. She had mo- 
 ments under the electric fan of feeling she could do 
 no more. Nothing, in all their perplexities, had been 
 more debated than the dance. Were there, to begin 
 with, people enough? Resident Washington had fled 
 in all directions. Would any proportion of it, at 
 a card, flee back again? Where were the wives of 
 the Cabinet and the Senate not many, rest assured, 
 like heroic Mrs. Phipps, at their post. Where were 
 the Embassies? At summer quarters, largely on 
 leave, certainly empty, except for Prince Alfred's 
 own and poor dear Lady Pak, of all charm. Then 
 the heat. Could anybody, would anybody dance, 
 though the ballroom were turned into a cave of the 
 winds with fans? Major Calder was inclined to 
 think they could and would. Major Calder was op- 
 timistic all through offered personally to bear the 
 responsibility. 
 
 Major Calder went into committee with Hilary, 
 whom the President called always his extra-A.D.C., 
 and they invited the views of Captain Howard, of 
 the Embassy concerned, who declared that in his 
 experience the sun never rose on the British domin- 
 ions except to the tune of dance music, even in the
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 tropics, and so put them on their mettle. There was 
 also the question as to where else the Prince would 
 have an opportunity of seeing the flower of American 
 society engaged in its favorite pastime. His itine- 
 rary excluded summer resorts ; he was understood to 
 be too much in earnest about the most profitable use 
 of his time. Anything, of course, might happen in 
 the West, but was it wholly desirable that the Prince's 
 ideas of American society should be left to form in 
 those free areas? Moreover, nowhere after this 
 could such an entertainment bear the stamp and seal 
 of the official sample. To these deliberations, Hil- 
 ary contributed the conviction that the most dis- 
 tinguished, the most desirable people within any 
 reasonable radius would not only come but pant to 
 be asked. 
 
 "They'll make a lofty duty of it," she said. 
 "They'll fly by night to be here. Neither sun-stroke 
 nor self-sacrifice will count. They'll be here." 
 
 Hilary, as usual, carried the day. It wasn't to 
 be anything so unreasonable as a ball, but it was to 
 be a dance, an "At Home, Dancing." Mrs. Phipps 
 agreed with misgivings, but she did agree to an "At 
 Home, Dancing." London, following with interest 
 in the thick of its own season, never realized how 
 sporting she was ; and Prince Alfred, when he heard 
 of it, noted it among the delightful fixtures that would 
 have to be got through, and never once thought, after 
 
 42
 
 the manner of his race, about the disabilities of the 
 weather. 
 
 Nor, apparently, did anybody else, judging by the 
 desire for invitations. Major Calder declared him- 
 self to have been the center of an intrigue that 
 stretched for three hundred miles to every point of 
 the compass, to say nothing of Mount Kisco, Tuxedo 
 and New York. Ordinary members of Congress 
 produced wives and daughters from incredible dis- 
 tances, and were very firm about them, while, as Hil- 
 ary had prophesied, there were miraculously almost 
 too many of the people one really wanted. The New 
 York papers added columns to the excitement under 
 headings like "Say, Are You Asked to the Ball?'* 
 and gave long accounts of the proposed decorations, 
 the supper, the number of electric fans that would 
 whirl, and tons of ice that would melt in service of 
 the occasion. Mrs. Phipps saw with indignation 
 that she was to wear a "robe" of cloudiest silk mus- 
 lin specially designed and embroidered in gold with 
 the American eagle, and was not allowed to contra- 
 dict it except at meals "Because," said the President, 
 "perhaps you ought to." His Royal Highness, it 
 was understood, would appear in the ordinary even- 
 ing; dress of an English gentleman, wearing his 
 decorations a plausible assumption which the event 
 was equally to disprove. To Colonel Vandeleur's as- 
 tonishment, Prince Alfred came to him with an idea 
 
 43
 
 'HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 about his clothes. This was most unexpected in the 
 Prince. In the words of his impressed valet, Catkin, 
 he had never hitherto been known to do more than 
 put on what was put out, and would hardly be aware 
 whether he was wearing a Norfolk coat or a dinner- 
 jacket. Prince Alfred sprung his clothes upon his 
 equerry at the last moment. Colonel Vandeleur was 
 at a loss what to say, and finally consulted the Presi- 
 dent, in an interview of serious and ceremonious 
 doubt. 
 
 "I didn't know he had it with him," said the 
 Colonel with a furrowed forehead. "But, having 
 expressed the wish " 
 
 "Exactly," said the President, and rang for Major 
 Calder, who contributed another anxious brow, and 
 suggested telephoning the State Department, where 
 there was a man who certainly knew. Had Vande- 
 leur consulted Pakenham ? Oh, as to the Embassy 
 Prince Alfred's lightest wish naturally, must be law 
 to them all. Then, if Colonel Vandeleur really 
 wished an opinion, they would with pleasure telephone 
 the State Department. 
 
 There authority found no precedent, though a 
 search at the other end was audible. 
 
 "But why not? It's a kind thought," enunciated 
 the receiver in the hand of Major Calder. 
 
 "It occurs to me," said President Phipps, as they 
 settled it. "that some little interest should be expressed 
 
 44
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 in my clothes. But it seems to be taken for granted 
 that I shall appear in the creation I looked so charm- 
 ing in last time." 
 
 It was Major Calder who told Hilary, shortly 
 after the presidential party entered the ballroom 
 after dinner, what Prince Alfred was wearing. She 
 asked him, with deep and natural interest, the uni- 
 form was so extremely becoming. The dark green 
 shoulders were so broad, the dark head above them 
 so erectly held, the hilt and scabbard so unexpected 
 an incident in the ordinary evening dress of an Eng- 
 lish gentleman. 
 
 "It's the Imperial Rifles," Calder told her. 
 "That's his regiment, but he's wearing the uniform 
 to-night because it was once ours the Royal Ameri- 
 cans they were, and never came back to be disbanded. 
 The regiment sort of belonged over here in the seven- 
 teen seventies, and for to-night, out of compliment to 
 us, he's a Royal American without prejudice to the 
 Imperial Rifles." 
 
 "Oh," said Hilary, watching the slender figure 
 bend to the first presentations. "Oh " 
 
 Her hand, as she stood looking, slipped over her 
 heart, which was beating with a sudden sense of wild 
 romance 
 
 "Nobody knows," Major Calder was saying, 
 "whether he had any earthly right to do it. Vandy 
 thinks he's mad and certain to get into trouble at 
 
 45
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 home over it. But I'm here for you, Miss Hilary. 
 It's as much as my place is worth if you don't make 
 your bow among the first twenty. The President 
 as good as told me so. Think of those dependent on 
 me, and come." 
 
 "Not yet," said Hilary. "Please, not yet. Later 
 on, Major Calder. Please, later on." 
 
 "The first twenty, or I'm fired. Have pity, Miss 
 Hilary. Think of my aged mother." 
 
 "There is your aged mother looking for you," 
 she told him, indicating a jeweled, portly and radi- 
 ant lady in full sail toward them; and when Calder 
 turned again from the maternal greeting, Hilary was 
 gone. In and out she went among groups that 
 looked at her with the admiring recognition that ac- 
 knowledges itself unknown, passing here and there 
 one that accosted and would have detained her. She 
 laughed and went by, pretending a purpose. Her 
 face had happy intention in it; her eyes searched; 
 as an intimate of the house, she might well be carry- 
 ing out some commission or some quest. And all to 
 cover an exquisite sudden commotion, an unaccount- 
 able impulse to fly. At the opposite end of the room 
 she paused beside a garlanded pillar and looked back, 
 very lovely, very undecided, mysteriously, helplessly 
 near to the tears of pure excitement. A kind, dull 
 face surged out of the crowd toward her, Betty Car- 
 roll's. Wasn't it wonderfully cool after all ! Such 
 
 46
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 a lucky drop in the temperature since yesterday, and 
 why wasn't Hilary dancing this first extra ? Would 
 Betty sit it out with her? Betty couldn't believe her 
 ears they would be raided but wouldn't she just ! 
 How darling of Hilary! Here behind the palm? 
 "... And do you know, honey, what the angel 
 has got on? . . ."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 MEANWHILE, Major Calder's mother 
 achieved her presentation, and Major Cal- 
 der, who understood the duties of a son as 
 well as those of an aide-de-camp, saw that she had a 
 real talk of three good minutes. Mrs. Calder made 
 the pleasantest impression, and drifted away into 
 the important official circles that ever widened about 
 Prince Alfred and his immediate support, with the 
 happiest grace possible to so large a lady. Other 
 presentations were made with equal form and felicity, 
 while the first extras were merrily danced by young 
 people who felt themselves unlikly to receive that dis- 
 tinction, and to whom, in any case, a waltz was a 
 waltz. The scene had every brilliancy, and seemed to 
 gain a charm, a spontaneity, from being so unexpected 
 and out of season. . Distinguished persons stood about 
 in attitudes, in spite of their ease, equally distin- 
 guished; stars glittered; uniforms scattered their hint 
 of high duty and gay prestige. A thousand roses 
 broke their hearts upon the air under the flying fans, 
 the orchestra swept like a tide of delight over all. 
 
 48
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 A graceful, whirling world upon the floor before him, 
 a world of influential office and high claims about 
 him, a new world dancing to the old tunes, new 
 flowers blooming in familiar petals Prince Alfred 
 felt suddenly the gaiety of any young man at a ball, 
 and knew that for the first time in his life he was going 
 to enjoy himself at one. He listened with bent head 
 to the final reminiscence of the old lady who remem- 
 bered the visit of his father as Prince of Wales, his 
 heart bounding with a glorious sense of enchantment 
 and peradventure. Then he said formally to the 
 President, "May I get rid of my sword, sir?" 
 
 Vandy took it, solemnly, and handed it to Major 
 Calder, who in turn confided it to an aide-de-camp, 
 in whose charge it disappeared. The old lady she 
 was very charming in a lace cap leant on her ebony 
 stick and touched his arm with her delicate fan. 
 "There's only one time to dance, Prince," she advised 
 him, with a smile that printed her face forever in 
 his memory. 
 
 There is a royal gesture of the head which creates 
 at once a confidential loneliness. Prince Alfred made 
 it toward his equerry. 
 
 "Would it matter, Vandy, if I cut in now?" he 
 said; but Vandy was saved more than a smile of em- 
 barrassment. Already the music of the second extra 
 was throbbing to its end, and in another moment the 
 notes of the prelude to the state lancers sent person- 
 
 49
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 ages looking for the partners conferred upon them, 
 and flung the waltzers into foamy lines and groups 
 along the sides of the room to watch the still new 
 feature of a ceremonial dance in the White House. 
 Prince Alfred gave his arm to Mrs. Phipps, the 
 President sought out Lady Pak, secretaries and am- 
 bassadors fell into their places, and in the properest 
 manner, head high and feet that stepped to a strange 
 magic, Prince Alfred danced his first American meas- 
 ure straight across the heart of Hilary Lanchester, 
 where she hid it under a palm at the further end of 
 the room, a spot from which, nevertheless, its 
 guardian, dissimulated in converse with Betty Carroll, 
 had an excellent view of what was happening. 
 
 "Oh, Betty," she moaned, taking it all as a jest, 
 "I adore him don't you?" and Betty professed her- 
 self in the same case. So they might have adored his 
 painted picture; yet there was a difference, and Betty 
 was much the more composed of the two. 
 
 "The Royal Americans! Betty!" 
 
 "I know," said Betty. 
 
 Naturally, Miss Lanchester was not allowed to re- 
 main undisturbed under the palm, nor even Betty 
 Carroll, whose father held a responsible appointment 
 in the Navy Department, and who, half an hour later, 
 was seen by all the world doing her incomparable 
 two-step with the Prince. Hilary, going from part- 
 ner to partner, keeping in half willful, half terrified 
 
 50
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 mutiny well away from Mrs. Phipps, from Major 
 Calder, from her dear President, from everybody else 
 in the charmed circle, saw Betty doing her two-step, 
 and gave the dance to young Jimenez of the Spanish 
 Embassy, who was far too much in love with her, 
 because he was the best dancer in the room. The 
 Prince, treading the maze with Betty, treading the 
 maze full of magic that denied him always its center, 
 saw her at last with Jimenez. At last, not at first, 
 because, though his heart was keeping time to his 
 feet, and both knew themselves involved in magic 
 and a maze, he was paying the conscientious atten- 
 tion to his steps suitable to a young Englishman of his 
 rank in life. But at last 
 
 "Shall we stop for a minute?" he said, and they 
 stopped, Betty not wholly sorry to stop, beside an- 
 other garlanded pillar, where the eyes of all were 
 upon them. 
 
 "That," said he, as Hilary and Jimenez passed 
 again, with the grace of a wave of the sea, "is 
 Miss ?" 
 
 "Lanchester," Betty told him. "We think her 
 about the most exquisite thing there is. I should just 
 love to know, Prince, how she compares with girls 
 on your side." 
 
 He was watching the floating figures, and Betty 
 thought his expression very critical. 
 
 "I'm afraid I can't tell you," he said. "I have 
 
 Si
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 never seen anything like Miss Lanchester. Who is 
 that foreigner?" 
 
 He said it simply, but his tone must have carried 
 some displeasure, for the innocent Betty, an empiricist 
 at conversation with royalty, wondered if she had 
 been snubbed. 
 
 "Ought I," she demanded widely later, "to have 
 waited till he expressed an opinion? From that in- 
 stant Mr. Prince gave me the marble elbow." 
 
 It is quite true that in the short space that ensued 
 before the dance was over, nothing more was said, 
 and that a moment later she just melted away into 
 a seat, as she said, before his bow. 
 
 So he found her for himself, without Vandy, or 
 Calder, or anybody to help him. She was dropping 
 a smile when he found her, upon the old lady in the 
 lace cap, who looked up as he approached, and 
 clasped her hands together in the prettiest ecstasy. 
 
 "His Royal Highness, my dear," she said. It is 
 odd that her name should have been Mrs. Endor. 
 A widow she was Mrs. Miriam Endor. 
 
 Prince Alfred held out his hand and offered Miss 
 Lanchester, blushing, an American formula. 
 
 "I'm awfully pleased to meet you," he said. It 
 was not very sophisticated American, but she under- 
 stood it well enough, and a little smile bubbled up 
 in her heart. 
 
 They looked at one another for an instant with 
 
 52
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 happy curiosity, like two children, and then her eyes 
 fell. She kept them on the many wrinkles of the 
 gloves on the old lady's hands, crossed in her lap, 
 and, quite at a loss, she said nothing at all. 
 
 "I hope you remember," said Prince Alfred, "that 
 we have already been introduced. But, if not, I have 
 credentials." 
 
 "Credentials!" said Mrs. Miriam Endor, lifting 
 her hands. "Delicious." 
 
 "I was presented to you," Hilary said, "on Tues- 
 day." 
 
 Prince Alfred straightened himself ever so little, 
 and his lips took the line which fate had given them 
 for the acceptance of honorific formulas. 
 
 "May I have this one?" he said. 
 
 "How I wish I knew," said Mrs. Miriam Endor 
 as they left her side together, "what he meant about 
 credentials," and she hobbled away to find Mrs. 
 Phipps. 
 
 Prince Alfred did not dance altogether well. Hil- 
 ary actually heard him in an instant of diminuendo 
 count "One two three." It made her suddenly 
 feel quite happy and natural. Her embarrassment 
 slipped away; she even forgot to dance gracefully 
 in her desire that the anxious "One two three" 
 should beat truly to the music and to their feet. As 
 a partner can, she helped him a little. He was 
 really, she thought, getting into her step when he 
 
 53
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 said suddenly, "I can't dance, you know, for nuts. 
 They say I've got no ear. Let us cut it, and go and 
 talk about my Aunt Georgina." 
 
 He took her, she thought, to the most conspicuous 
 place in the room, in the midst of the notabilities, 
 who stood aside or fell away at their approach in. 
 a manner which seemed to cause Prince Alfred no in- 
 convenience, but which struck Miss Lanchester as 
 extraordinarily unkind and disconcerting. Lady 
 Pakenham and old Lord Selkirk, over on business 
 for the Dominion, got up while they were still, it 
 seemed to Hilary, yards away, and definitely left at 
 their disposal two high-backed gilt chairs, which said 
 in every line that they were meant for visitors of state. 
 
 "Please don't move," Prince Alfred begged them; 
 but they had moved, smiling, quite away, and, seeing 
 that, he led Hilary to one gilt chair, and took the 
 other himself. As they sat there in the natural 
 aloofness of gilt chairs, but bending a little toward 
 one another, she in a white and flowing gown that 
 foamed about her feet, he a trifle rigid in his Rifles' 
 green, they made a picture that many people remem- 
 bered all their lives. Mrs. Phipps attracted the 
 President's attention to it, and he with a smile of 
 pride at once turned his back on it. 
 
 "It isn't so very warm, after all," Hilary was say- 
 ing. "The fans are almost too much, near the win- 
 dows, when one isn't dancing." 
 
 54
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "No is it?" he replied. But with mutual, solid 
 ground between them, why waste time upon the tem- 
 perature? "I have practically, you know, a letter 
 of introduction to you, Miss Lanchester. From an 
 aunt of mine. And messages. That is, if you are 
 an only child, if you lost your mother when you were 
 very young, and if your father was once presi- 
 dent " 
 
 Grave qualifications, but they both laughed; the 
 Prince was so pat with them. 
 
 "Nothing was said, I suppose, about this," dared 
 Hilary, touching her face. 
 
 "About " 
 
 "The mole on my left cheek?" 
 
 "It doesn't seem much of a mole." He inspected 
 it, from the point of view of the other gilt chair, care- 
 fully. "Perhaps it didn't show when you were little." 
 
 "Three weeks old I was." Should she say, "Sir" ? 
 Should she say, "Your Royal Highness"? She said 
 nothing. 
 
 "Were you really? When my Aunt Geor- 
 gina " 
 
 "Christened me yes." 
 
 "Oh! now you're rotting. Godmothered you, 
 you mean." 
 
 Hilary blushed crimson. It had been a slip. 
 Should she carry it off or confess? She rode at it 
 straight. 
 
 55
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "No, I wasn't I was confused. I meant the 
 other thing, of course." 
 
 "My aunt didn't tell me," said Prince Alfred, 
 looking at her intently, "what you were christened." 
 
 "Hilary Georgina." 
 
 "I like Hilary best," he said with simplicity. 
 
 "It was my mother's name. So it had to come 
 first, hadn't it ?" 
 
 "Of course. Then what church were you chris- 
 tened in?" he asked earnestly. 
 
 "The Episcopalian. You don't think the Princess 
 would have lent herself to any other rites?" 
 
 "I couldn't say. My aunt is very broad-minded. 
 Episcopalian," he mused. 
 
 "Not Methodist Episcopal. Protestant Episco- 
 palian," she explained. "It's what your Church of 
 England calls itself over here." 
 
 "Oh," he said. "Then you belong, practically, to 
 the same church that I do. But I must not forget 
 the messages. My aunt sent you her love and says 
 she would be very pleased to see you in England." 
 
 "Thank you," said Hilary. As she spoke a whirl- 
 ing fan sent a rose, loosed from its place in the deco- 
 rations, through the air to her feet. It was a very 
 perfect red rose, and Prince Alfred picked it up 
 where it lay between them, and presented it to her. 
 He could do no less, and she, perhaps, was equally 
 obliged to lift it to her face. 
 
 56
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "It is quite fresh," said Hilary, and it was. Fate 
 seldom dropped a fresher rose. 
 
 "My aunt's letter was all about you," he persisted. 
 
 "Was it, really?" 
 
 "Yes no," he corrected. "She did mention one 
 other person. It is odd that he was driven on to 
 say: "A little German girl. You probably wouldn't 
 know her " 
 
 "Try me," said Hilary. "There were some at 
 my school in Brussels." 
 
 "I believe she was at school somewhere 
 Sophia " 
 
 "Not Sophy Sternburg-Hofstein?" 
 
 "You do know her?" Prince Alfred's tone carried 
 very moderate interest. 
 
 "She is only one of my greatest friends on earth! 
 Her mother was a girl friend of my mother her 
 marriage with the Grand Duke was an immense ro- 
 mance so Sophy and I just fell into each other's 
 arms at Mademoiselle's. How delightful that that 
 you should have been hearing about Sophy. Then 
 you know her, too?" 
 
 "I'm supposed to. But I have the vaguest recol- 
 lection of her. My aunt tells me I haven't seen her 
 since she was a Backfisch." 
 
 "We were Backfisches together. Do tell me 
 whether she is going to Scotland?" For all her 
 effort at repose, Miss Lanchester's words would 
 
 57
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 scamper. "In her letter last week she was dying to, 
 but it wasn't settled a bit." 
 
 "I understand she is going to Scotland," said 
 Prince Alfred. "My aunt spoke of our seeing her 
 there." 
 
 "I could just weep for joy. Poor darling she 
 leads the dullest life ; she longs to be back at school. 
 And all day long nothing but intrigues to marry her 
 to somebody. Hates going anywhere for fear of 
 meeting exactly the right person quite by surprise, 
 and then a solemn communication and a scene. It 
 has happened! Really, between the Kaiser and his 
 wicked old Chancellor, Sophy might just as well be 
 living in the Middle Ages. And the abominable 
 tyranny of those two men. She can't so much as 
 select her own literature, not to speak of her own 
 maid. It's a medieval situation. Somebody ought 
 to rescue her Prince." 
 
 "I am sure," said Prince Alfred earnestly, "some- 
 body will. My aunt leads me to believe that several 
 people have already tried." 
 
 "Not," said Hilary with emphasis, "the right peo- 
 ple. She draws them in her letters thumb-nail 
 sketches and I can see that they're not. You can't 
 think what it is for a girl who has been at school and 
 all, to be just a pawn for German diplomacy to be 
 moved, for the good of the Empire, into the married 
 state out of the single." 
 
 58
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 He looked at her for a moment without answer- 
 ing. 
 
 "It's not nice for anybody," he then said; and 
 there was something in his voice that surprised her 
 with a sudden compunction. But Vandy, who hov- 
 ered never too far away, now came pointedly up. 
 
 "Supper, sir, is at the end of this dance," he said. 
 "The procession will form from the dais. Mrs. 
 Phipps will be near the door into the drawing-room 
 on the right. Miss Lanchester, may I have the 
 honor of taking you in?"
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 FOR the celebration of such a function as the 
 President's ball it was as necessary as ever to 
 turn to the newspapers, especially to the news- 
 papers of New York; and the metropolitan press 
 certainly rewarded attention the day after the event, 
 so clever it was, and so imaginative. The whole 
 world danced in it up and down close printed columns, 
 the whole uninvited world that had a nickel to pay. 
 The names of the guests were there in starry rows. 
 The uninvited world hailed them as representative 
 and revelled in their clothes. But the chief glorying 
 was in the uniform of Prince Alfred. 
 
 "That once American green, those buttons un- 
 der which once beat American hearts as true as 
 his to the island throne and the gray old mother 
 over seas." 
 
 Nothing was lost of the princely compliment; the 
 Republic smiled to it from north to south ; Life had a 
 charming cartoon. There were columns about the his- 
 tory and exploits of the regiment, and Prince Alfred 
 was assured that he would never lose the name or the 
 
 60
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 distinction of being the first Royal American 
 since '76. 
 
 "Sentimentally," said the Evening Post, "we are 
 enchanted, and politically we can stand it, since there 
 is at present only one." The little tribute was taken 
 in the highest spirits, but it would be foolish to sup- 
 pose that the jest carried all. Pages turned back 
 and eyes followed them, to the old quiet century be- 
 fore the great era of splendid assertion. Family 
 records were looked up, old miniatures produced. 
 Boston talked of a colonial pageant in honor of the 
 Prince. 
 
 "So far as I can make out," said Colonel Vande- 
 leur, sorting letters and telegrams next morning in 
 the setting-room of their suite, "there are exactly 
 thirteen applications from illustrated papers for your 
 photograph in that kit of yours last night, my dear 
 boy. As well as four intimations of public functions 
 at which you are invited to appear wearing it." 
 
 "There is also a cable from the Duchess of Alten- 
 burg," said Prince Alfred, "suggesting that I should 
 send it home. I gather John R. has been making 
 remarks. My aunt adds 'Await press comments with 
 deepest apprehension.' She must have been upset, 
 to put in that unnecessary 'with.' I think I will 
 send it home, Vandy. There's a post to-day. 
 That will gratify my aunt and dispose of the photo- 
 graphs." 
 
 61
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur opened another envelope and 
 glanced at its contents with a longer face. 
 
 "Cipher," he said, "F. O. I thought I should hear 
 from 'em." He unlocked a despatch-box and took 
 out a small code book. "Gad I hope it isn't a re- 
 call. Really, dear chap, I don't know what induced 
 you to do it." 
 
 "I wanted to look well dressed," Prince Alfred 
 told him, "in the eyes of my hosts. The Foreign 
 Office be blowed. And I warn you straight, Vandy, 
 if it is a recall, I don't propose to go." 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur looked rather blankly at his 
 charge, whose tone of determination certainly gave a 
 gentleman-in-waiting to think. It was not a recall 
 when they made it out, but it was a very plain admoni- 
 tion. Prince Alfred considered it with a sharp line 
 between his brows, and a lower lip that looked more 
 irritated than impressed. 
 
 "That's the kind of ridiculous and unnecessary 
 quacking that goes on the year round," he said. 
 "But it's the first time I've had my kit interfered 
 with. Wire back and tell 'em I consider my clothes 
 my own." 
 
 He spoke, of course, like a high-spirited youth 
 checked in an uncomfortable and impressive way for 
 an initiative in which he had taken pleasure and pride; 
 and Vandy did not interpret his words as instructions. 
 He had also been warned that his Prince was incor- 
 
 62
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 rigibly impatient of control, easily angered by too 
 obvious restraint, and subject in such connection to a 
 peculiarly durable sulkiness in which he was difficult 
 to manage. His winning smile would fly, and he 
 would simply turn to authority a very cold shoulder. 
 Colonel Vandeleur was never to forget that what his 
 present task most demanded was tact. Fortunately 
 tact was the very thing that the Colonel had most in 
 reserve. He produced a little of it now. 
 
 "I agree with you that it had better go back," he 
 said. "On the simple ground that you won't want it 
 after this. Of course I understand their attitude in 
 a way; but the trouble is they don't in the least realize 
 how little a thing like that really counts on this 
 side " 
 
 "Silly asses." 
 
 "As you say it was liked and appreciated, very 
 much liked and appreciated but as to attaching any 
 serious importance to a thing like that it's only 
 Europe, you know, that would." 
 
 At that moment Prince Alfred's valet passed, like 
 an efficient shadow, to the door of his master's bed- 
 room, a clothes-brush in his hand, the green uniform 
 over his arm. 
 
 "Catkin," said the Prince, "the Auretania starts 
 back to-morrow I saw it in the papers. Put that 
 kit on board. And look here Catkin you are to 
 go with it understand? To take charge of it. 
 
 63
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 You've been invaluable, Catkin, so far, but now I 
 am going to look after myself for a bit, and you won't 
 be sorry for a holiday. So hop it, Catkin." 
 
 The man stood dumbfounded. "Yes, sir," he said. 
 "Yes, sir," and looked at Colonel Vandeleur, who 
 had risen and stood braced, as it seemed, before the 
 emergency of his life. 
 
 "My dear fellow," he said firmly. "You simply 
 cannot do without Catkin. You may take it from 
 me. In this country above all others, where you 
 where a man may any day be expected to black his 
 own boots " 
 
 "I was taught to black my own boots and other 
 useful things when I was ten," said Prince Alfred, 
 "and I am rather glad to be in a place where I may 
 be expected to black 'em again. I bet you ten bob, 
 Vandy, I do a better shine than you do." 
 
 It was certainly a way of paying them back for 
 their telegrams, especially, perhaps, Aunt Georgina. 
 Prince Alfred's good humor was completely restored. 
 He was pacing the room now, his hands in his trousers 
 pockets, with a gay and enterprising face from which 
 the shadows had been chased by an imaginary black- 
 ing-brush. 
 
 "I've no doubt you would," said Colonel Vande- 
 leur unhappily, "but dash it all, Prince, do consider 
 what will be said when you are seen absolutely un- 
 attended " 
 
 64
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "My dear Vandy, I've got you," exclaimed Prince 
 Alfred, royally disconcerting. "You will save my 
 life and take care of my money, you know you will, 
 and what more do I want?" He looked radiant, 
 and the line of his chin in profile was extremely dis- 
 tinct. 
 
 "Oh, sir," implored the faithful Catkin, "if I 
 might make the suggestion, who, sir, will see that the 
 washing comes back correct?" 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur abandoned tact. 
 
 "I'm afraid the King will be seriously annoyed," 
 he said. "He only consented " 
 
 "John's annoyance," said Prince Alfred firmly, "is 
 the everlasting bane of my life. Who the devil 
 I mean, if John is annoyed at a silly thing like that, 
 he isn't Will you, clear out, Catkin, and do as 
 you're told?" 
 
 It is probable that Colonel Vandeleur, C.B., never 
 offered to this pleasant world a more disgusted coun- 
 tenance. 
 
 "Then may Catkin get hold of my fellow?" he 
 said. 
 
 "Certainly why?" 
 
 "If Catkin goes, I hardly see myself keeping 
 Briggs." 
 
 "Oh. No of course. You mean you don't want 
 to make the impression of effeminate luxury over here 
 any more than I do. I think we're both right, Vandy 
 
 65
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 let 'em go together. They'll hold each other's 
 basins." 
 
 "That's settled then." It was now Colonel Van- 
 deleur whose face assumed, as he continued to dis- 
 pose of letters, the shadow of gloom. Prince Al- 
 fred, with his hands in his pockets, looked out upon 
 the President's garden, and whistled, much out of 
 tune but with enjoyment, the air the American mi- 
 crobe, industrious within, stimulated his lips to form. 
 The door closed upon Catkin, and as it did there was 
 a little thud upon the floor and a round, dark object 
 rolled out into the room. Prince Alfred picked it 
 up a regimental button. 
 
 "Off my tunic," he said, "I noticed it was dicky 
 last night. Old Catkin has brushed it loose. I won't 
 give it to him now he's upset enough as it is," and 
 he slipped the button into his pocket. 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur, gnawing his mustache, emitted 
 an indistinct "Haw," in reply. He was looking out 
 trains for the two servants, writing checks, and re- 
 membering the necessity for tact. 
 
 "They'll only just do it," he said. "I can't un- 
 derstand the reason for the tremendous hurry, Prince. 
 There's a Cunarder every week, thank Heaven." 
 
 "You forget the Duchess of Altenburg's telegram, 
 Colonel. I am afraid she would be seriously an- 
 noyed if I did not obey at once. And I never was in 
 such a hurry in my life as I am to get rid of Catkin." 
 
 66
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur permitted himself to smile. 
 "Have it your own way," he said, and thought of 
 something pleasanter. "Well, we saw some very 
 fair specimens of the American rose last night. On 
 the whole we can report favorably to the President." 
 
 "Report," said Alfred frowning. The word 
 seemed ill chosen. "Will he expect a report?" 
 
 "Perhaps we'd better make it an anthem." 
 
 Do what he would the Colonel could not express 
 himself in his usual happy manner. Below his smile 
 Briggs undisguisedly rankled. 
 
 Prince Alfred again squared his back to the room 
 and looked out of the window. 
 
 "I take it," went on Colonel Vandy, "that the 
 little Lanchester lady do you remember her? is 
 almost a daughter of the house. I would give her 
 last night's honors, myself. Something so fresh 
 about her. Stands up on her stem. Girls run far 
 too much to the tea-rose variety over here, in my 
 opinion." 
 
 "I do remember her," replied Alfred, with a glance 
 of cool displeasure. "But why 'little' ? Quite the 
 reverse, I should say." 
 
 Vandy, aware that he had blundered, hastened to 
 make amends. 
 
 "Delightfully intelligent anyway" he went on, in 
 another tone, "I was fortunate enough to take her 
 in to supper. Rotten luck," he observed with de- 
 
 67
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 tachment, "that your fate on these occasions should 
 always be the oldest and the ugliest." 
 
 "I did well enough last night," Prince Alfred con- 
 tended. "Mrs. Phipps isn't old, and she is rather 
 pretty than otherwise. And I'm very fond of her. 
 She tells me lots of things." 
 
 "I heard a good deal that was new to me myself, 
 last night," replied Vandy, "mostly about you, dear 
 boy. I hadn't guessed half your splendid qualities, 
 it seemed. Fearfully excited my young lady was, 
 about that Yankee kit of yours. Upon my word at 
 one moment I thought she was going to burst into 
 tears. These American girls are all rather inclined 
 to be sentimental. Cold, you know, for all that." 
 
 "The Imperial never was a Yankee kit. If it had 
 been, I couldn't have worn it," Prince Alfred told 
 him. "But did it really interest her? She didn't 
 say anything about it to me. We we discussed 
 mutual friends." 
 
 Colonel Vandy had never in all his life flattered so 
 successfully. The young man's eyes had brightened, 
 and his head was up. 
 
 "Well, she hardly would, you know. Mutual 
 Really?" 
 
 "Yes, I say, Vandy," he turned round sharply. 
 "How much longer have we got here? Three days? 
 She's a sort of god-cousin of mine you know. I'd 
 like her asked to stay. Couldn't you arrange it?" 
 
 68
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur dropped his fountain pen and 
 stared for an instant, hard. Before the steadiness 
 of the look that returned his, a certain amusement in 
 his eye sheathed itself. 
 
 "Charmin' addition to the party," he said, "but 
 
 whether it's possible At home, of course, as easy 
 
 as winkin'. But over here you never can tell. 
 However, if you find her amusing, I'll have a shot 
 at it." 
 
 "I don't find her amusing," replied Prince Alfred, 
 again giving his attention to the grounds of the White 
 House, "if you mean larky, or comic. I'd like to 
 know her better, that's all. I wish you would go 
 and see about it now, Vandy."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 VANDY went. As he went he quite entered 
 into the spirit of the thing, or thought he did 
 into the spirit of this unexpected "lark" of 
 Prince Alfred's. Prince Alfred was so little given 
 to larks of any sort it made the post of his equerry 
 a trifle dull. He hummed as he went, with a smile 
 of amusement, the refrain of a delightful old ballad, 
 
 "Oh, the pretty, pretty creature! 
 When I next do meet her " 
 
 He had found in his Prince a touch of human 
 nature as he best understood it, and the find gave him 
 real pleasure. 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur had always knocked about a 
 good deal with royalty, was familiar with its habits, 
 and knew its privileges by heart. It was upon him 
 that the Tommy Thursbys, who entertained more of 
 the Family for longer and more celebrated periods 
 than any other commoners in the kingdom, depended 
 to make each visit a more brilliant success than the 
 
 70
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 last. His name went almost automatically upon 
 house-party lists which had to be submitted, and he 
 invariably arrived two days before. His detractors 
 said of him that he could tell you in his sleep the 
 brand of cigarette smoked by every crowned head in 
 Europe. But he had not many detractors; he was 
 too genial and made himself too broad an allowance 
 for the weaknesses of his fellows. 
 
 His present mission would have been simple 
 enough in England. "Half a word," as he said to 
 himself, "would have been enough there." In Eng- 
 land these things were understood. Here, doubt- 
 less, he might have to explain. He was confident of. 
 being able to explain, of being able to place the 
 little suggestion in an attractive light. It must be, 
 of course, the merest suggestion, the lightest hint. 
 That would be as much, in all probability, as would 
 be necessary. 
 
 "Hang it all," said Colonel Vandeleur to himself, 
 "it is a compliment." 
 
 Yet he found himself wondering as he made his 
 way to Mrs. Phipps's morning-room, where they told 
 him he would find her, exactly how he would put it. 
 
 He went straight to Mrs. Phipps. Already he 
 had found that Mrs. Phipps preferred the direct 
 method, did not at all appreciate having suggestions 
 conveyed to her by the President's aides-de-camp, 
 whose duties seemed to Colonel Vandeleur much less
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 domestic than they might be, than they ought to be. 
 None of the four ever seemed to exercise the least 
 supervision over the butler; Mrs. Phipps had her- 
 self proposed to admonish the cook when the cus- 
 tard went wrong at luncheon. And when he, Vandy, 
 had asked Calder for some plain Windsor soap for 
 the Prince he got it, but the fellow had looked at 
 him. What was the fellow there for if not to see 
 the guests of the house got the kind of soap they 
 were accustomed to? He had an intuition that it 
 would be no use, no manner of use, to mention this 
 whim of the Prince about Miss Lanchester to Major 
 Calder. Calder would bungle it. He would go 
 straight to Mrs. Phipps. Ladies were much more 
 understanding in such matters. Yet how the devil 
 should he put it? 
 
 "But gallantly will I tre-eat her, 
 But gallantly will I treat her, 
 Oh! the pretty, pretty, pretty pretty " 
 
 "Why, come in, Colonel Vandeleur. Bring your 
 chair right over here, under the fan. The Prince 
 understood, didn't he, my not being at breakfast this 
 morning? The President absolutely forbade it." 
 
 "I'm immensely surprised and immensely gratified, 
 dear lady, to find you up at all, after your most 
 charming, most successful, but, alas, no doubt most 
 fatiguing entertainment last night. The Prince was 
 
 72
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 enchanted. I have never known him so happy at a 
 dance." 
 
 Mrs. Phipps sat, with a little gesture of dignity, 
 slightly straighten 
 
 "Ah well," she said, "that's an immense reward, 
 Colonel. I thought Prince Alfred seemed to be en- 
 joying himself. It was certainly our privilege to 
 make him do so in that uniform. Colonel Vande- 
 leur, I want to tell you I was never so touched by 
 anything in my whole life. And the President, 
 though he's not a person to say much, feels exactly 
 as I do about it." 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur's face bore no trace of even a 
 cipher telegram. He looked gratified, and crossed 
 his legs. 
 
 "It was the dear fellow's own thought," he said. 
 "I had nothing whatever to do with it though I 
 daresay I shall get the credit of having had a good 
 deal. He does seem, bless his heart, to have made 
 a pleasant impression. He has also apparently re- 
 ceived one, Mrs. Phipps." 
 
 The Colonel's archness was so obvious that Mrs. 
 Phipps must have smiled whether she wanted to or 
 not, and she did want to, being full of natural im- 
 pulses. 
 
 "If the Prince has been expressing any particular 
 admiration " Mrs. Phipps dimpled for her country 
 "I expect it was for Mrs. Jack Fergus. Mrs. Jack 
 
 73
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 really is a very great beauty, and she was looking 
 quite lovely last night." 
 
 "She certainly was " Colonel Vandeleur often 
 confessed the facility with which he picked up Ameri- 
 can ways of putting things. "She certainly was, Mrs. 
 Phipps. But Prince Alfred's homage was laid at 
 the feet of somebody you think a great deal more of 
 than you do of Mrs. Jack Fergus." 
 
 "Colonel," said Mrs. Phipps with a smile which 
 made every admission, "I should have hated you if 
 you had said Mrs. Jack. The Prince has been ad- 
 miring my Hilary. How could he help it?" 
 
 "How could anybody help it?" The Colonel's air 
 of regret, of being hopelessly out-distanced, though 
 humorous, was full of the most acceptable tact. "And 
 the pretty part of it is, Mrs. Phipps, that Prince 
 Alfred has practically never been known to look twice 
 at a lady." 
 
 "It's very sweet of him," Mrs. Phipps acknowl- 
 edged, "because he must have seen so many lovely 
 girls." 
 
 "I take it that he is no less attracted by her char- 
 acter. 'I so much wish,' he said to me, 'that I might 
 have the opportunity of knowing her better.' ' 
 
 Mrs. Phipps looked the least bit in the world taken 
 aback. "How nice of him," she said with a certain 
 quietude. 
 
 "And it's quite my own idea, dear lady, and 
 
 74
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 please don't be cross with me I wondered whether 
 you wouldn't perhaps indulge the Prince in his per- 
 fectly natural and charming desire to know a little 
 more of American young people of Miss Lanchester's 
 type, and perhaps if it isn't too much to ask have 
 her here for the remainder of his visit. Remember 
 it's quite my own idea," he added, meeting her round 
 eyes. 
 
 "Have Hilary here?" she said slowly. "But but, 
 Colonel Vandeleur, what would people say?" 
 
 "What could they say, dear lady, except that you 
 very sweetly wanted to add to Prince Alfred's visit 
 the " 
 
 "And the newspapers ! Colonel, you don't- 
 you've forgotten -" 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur pursed his lips a little con- 
 temptuously. "I should not mind about the news- 
 papers," he said. "Besides, why should they find 
 anything remarkable in it? She ought not to be 
 asked alone of course some other lady such things 
 are so easy. And Miss Lanchester has often stayed 
 here before." 
 
 "But to ask her while the Prince is in the house 
 after the dance " 
 
 "They would surely understand that he might wish 
 to obtain the most delightful impression possible 
 of American young ladies or that you might wish it 
 for him." 
 
 75
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 By this time Colonel Vandeleur felt that he really 
 must carry his point. Dear Mrs. Phipps's opposition 
 was too unexpected, too unreasonable, too well 
 really, too provincial. 
 
 "I am afraid they would couple it with the name 
 of only one American young lady," Mrs. Phipps told 
 him with a flushed and troubled face. 
 
 "I quite see your point. But, my dear Mrs. 
 Phipps, between ourselves, as man and woman of the 
 world " 
 
 "That, Colonel Vandeleur, I am not, and never 
 shall be. I must beg you not to call me a woman of 
 the world. It does not flatter me, Colonel Vande- 
 leur, at all." 
 
 The Colonel leaned forward with an impressive 
 gentle smile, and a confidential gesture. 
 
 "You can hardly, dear madam, be the wife of the 
 President of the United States and not be a woman 
 of the world. In the best sense in the very best 
 sense of the term." 
 
 "That's just where you make a mistake, Colonel. 
 I didn't marry the President of the United States. 
 I came along with him. And I am only too well 
 aware how far I fall short of filling the position as it 
 should be filled. But nothing would make me believe 
 that any woman of the world would on that account 
 fill it better." 
 
 "Dear lady," soothed the Colonel, "dear lady, no 
 
 76
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 woman of any sort would fill it better. But don't 
 now please don't misunderstand this little pleasure, 
 this little treat, that I thought I might try to secure 
 for the Prince. If you know what an innocent young 
 a what an absolute baby he is, you would let them 
 play blind man's buff together, and not have a mo- 
 ment's anxiety." 
 
 "You needn't tell me anything about the Prince, 
 Colonel Vandeleur. I have the greatest affection 
 and admiration for him. But I've got to think of 
 Hilary, and I don't think I could expose her to 
 Suppose she fell in love with him." 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur rose, with just a hint of dis- 
 pleased dignity. "My dear friend, she is much too 
 sensible a girl. Such things only happen where they 
 are morganatically possible." 
 
 "I know," said Mrs. Phipps in some confusion. 
 "Countries in Europe ending in 'ania.' Still I'll 
 speak to the President. I really can't decide by my- 
 self." 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur had approached the door. 
 
 "Please dismiss it from your mind, Mrs. Phipps," 
 he said kindly. "We mustn't, after all, spoil our 
 young man. An occasional disappointment is good 
 for him." 
 
 Mrs. Phipps, uncertain and unhappy, made a step 
 or two in pursuit. 
 
 "But what will you say to the Prince?" she en- 
 
 77
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 treated. "I'm afraid I've been perfectly silly and 
 ridiculous, Colonel Vandy. Please " 
 
 "There will be no need to mention it to him," 
 Vandy replied. "You forget that it is quite my 
 own idea, a mere butterfly thought, dear lady. Don't 
 let it disturb you, I beg," and the door closed upon 
 him. 
 
 Mrs. Phipps, left alone, became an immediate 
 prey to reaction. She sat down desolately beside 
 the buhl table and leaned her head upon her hand. 
 Had she, after all, just shied away from the idea, 
 in nervous and ridiculous fear of some bogey that 
 wasn't there? Had she shown herself a silly prude 
 and prig toward the most innocent and genial of 
 initiatives? A prude and prig dear Mrs. Phipps was 
 in mortal fear of being considered, conscious as she 
 was of an almost ungovernable bias toward things 
 sweet and straight and without reproach. She took 
 little ineffective measures sometimes to show that 
 she wasn't really to be so frightfully easily shocked 
 as people might imagine, measures which the Presi- 
 dent observed with an amused twinkle and chaffed 
 her unmercifully about afterwards. James would 
 probably laugh at her scruples about this. He had 
 been so anxious that the Prince should meet Hilary 
 and should admire her. Besides, what was the use 
 of consulting James? She would be certain not to 
 agree with him, and do the other thing. No she 
 
 78
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 did wish she knew how to act; but it had better be 
 on her own responsibility. She would not consult 
 James. 
 
 "Then nobody will be to blame but me," she said 
 resolutely. 
 
 There was also Hilary's point of view. Of what 
 might she not be depriving Hilary? Of a pleasant, 
 distinguished friendship, most valuable perhaps, in 
 later years, if it ripened and mellowed, leading to 
 all sorts of interesting things. Useful perhaps, to 
 Hilary's children. Of course she must tell Hilary, 
 later. What if she looked reproach? The little 
 tribute would be dead then, like a pressed flower. 
 Why should she not have the flower fresh, with the 
 dew on it? 
 
 "Absurd!" said Mrs. Phipps aloud. "He's the 
 merest boy, and Hilary's head would have been 
 turned long ago if compliments could do it. She 
 shall decide for herself. And I shall tell her," added 
 Mrs. Phipps firmly, "exactly how it is." 
 
 "My darling child," she wrote, looked at the 
 words, and took another sheet. Unconsciously she 
 found them too maternal and impressive. "Darling 
 Hil" looked better, less portentous. 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur has been worrying my life out this 
 morning to get you to come and stay with us for the rest of 
 the Prince's visit. It seems that H.R.H. condescends to 
 wish to know you better. (I don't want to be satirical, for 
 
 79
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 he's a dear boy, but I suppose I am not used to royal ways, 
 though Colonel Vandy declares that he alone is responsible, 
 and I tell myself that he wouldn't be human if he didn't 
 wish to know you better, and why should a Prince be less 
 than human? Most are more.) So I write to tell you, 
 darling, that you have been approved and will you come? 
 You must decide. You know our house and hearts are al- 
 ways happy and glad to hold you. And we will try not to 
 be too jealous. Now fly to the arms of 
 
 Your ever devoted 
 
 MUMKINS. 
 
 "I won't read it over," she said, "or I will change 
 my mind." Nor did she add any of the dozen post- 
 scripts which presented themselves to her. The let- 
 ter went by hand, with all despatch, and Mrs. Phipps 
 curled herself upon a sofa to await the reply. Pres- 
 ently she rang. 
 
 "Tell Martha to get Miss Hilary's room ready," 
 she said. "I am expecting her for a few days." 
 
 Then she picked up a book and turned a page or 
 two, but put it down every few minutes to smile at 
 the picture of Hilary, reading her letter. "It is a 
 compliment," she agreed with Colonel Vandeleur, 
 "when all is said and done." 
 
 The reply came with a quickness that quite startled 
 Mrs. Phipps. She opened it, having just decided 
 that on the first night at dinner Hilary should 
 wear her rose brocade, with eager fingers. And she 
 read: 
 
 80
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 BELOVEDEST, 
 
 How can you think that He wishes to be condescending! 
 How can you think that he wishes to be anything but ex- 
 actly what he is simply and utterly adorable! You may 
 lay my heart at his feet if you like. But Oh, my love, I 
 don't want him to know me any better! And papa has 
 wired that he will be in New York in a week, and that I am 
 to go at once to Moose Lick and get the house ready. I go 
 to-night at six. Belovedest understand! 
 
 Your own 
 
 HIL. 
 
 Mrs. Phipps flushed and paled and flushed again. 
 
 "But it has happened already !" she cried, and read 
 a second time. 
 
 "It has certainly happened already but not in the 
 least seriously," she smiled with reassurance. "She 
 wouldn't write like that if But what a risk I ran !" 
 
 The Prince and Colonel Vandeleur were lunching 
 with the Secretary for the Navy. She would have to 
 wait till tea-time, which she did with impatience. She 
 quite wanted, why, she didn't ask herself, to let 
 Colonel Vandeleur know what had happened. 
 Vandy luckily, when five o'clock came, gave her an 
 early chance, begging for cream. 
 
 "I thought better of it after all, Colonel Vandy," 
 she said, looking up at him over the jug. "I wrote 
 to Miss Lanchester suggesting that she should make 
 us a little visit just now. And she is immensely sorry, 
 but she can't. Her father the ex-President, you 
 
 81
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 know is returning from Alaska, and has wired to her 
 to get their place in the mountains ready as soon as 
 she can. She leaves this afternoon." 
 
 "Poor dear girl what rotten luck," observed the 
 Colonel, possessing himself of a sandwich. 
 
 "I think she will be rather glad to get out of the 
 heat," his hostess told him. "And she is always 
 rather anxious about her father until Dr. Morrow 
 looks him over." 
 
 "Dr. Morrow," repeated Colonel Vandeleur. 
 
 "The famous Dr. Morrow, the lung specialist." 
 
 "Never heard of him in my life." 
 
 "He doesn't travel," said Mrs. Phipps simply. 
 "He stays right here and cures people. He cured 
 Henry Lanchester when he had his great breakdown, 
 and now Mr. Lanchester spends the best part of every 
 summer up there in the pine woods. He's a won- 
 derful man, Dr. Morrow." 
 
 "He must be," said Vandy, and moved away to 
 digest Mrs. Phipps's information. It did not digest 
 well, and when he thought of it later, in conversation 
 with the Prince, it had changed its character. 
 
 "By the way," -said he, "I mentioned, quite as my 
 own idea, the suggestion that Miss Lanchester should 
 join the home party here. But I was too late, Prince. 
 That charming girl has left Washington for the coun- 
 try. Pity!" 
 
 Prince Alfred half turned from the window where 
 
 82
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 he was again wasting time, and cocked, as it were, 
 an ear toward the Colonel. 
 
 "I'm sorry," he said. "Since she's not coming, 
 Vandy, what about that notion of yours of clearing 
 out a day earlier? These people must be dead sick 
 of us by now, and it is infernally hot." 
 
 "Right-o," said Vandy. "I'll fix it up. By the 
 way, did I show you this? It came by the second 
 post to-day." 
 
 The photograph was of a small group outside a 
 historic English country house, and Colonel Vande- 
 leur made part of it. So did Princess Georgina, 
 Duchess of Altenburg. The Duchess had graciously 
 sent the picture to Colonel Vandeleur. 
 
 "Who is the fair girl on your left?" asked the 
 Prince. 
 
 "Ah may I see? That is the Archduchess So- 
 phia Ludovica. She was staying in the house Lord 
 Bannermore's place in Kent. Extraordinary charm- 
 ing girl great friend of the Duchess." 
 
 "Oh is it?" said Prince Alfred and handed back 
 the picture to the trusted friend of the Duchess of 
 Altenburg, who wrote by return to say that His Royal 
 Highness had seen the group, and had looked twice, 
 at all events, at a certain member of it.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 IT was at Pittsburgh that it happened, just a fort- 
 night later. There is no doubt, as was at once 
 so widely said, that the fortnight had been an 
 over-strenuous one. The heat in New York had 
 been almost as bad as in Washington, record tem- 
 peratures for the time of year. And the heat had 
 been nothing to the enthusiasm, the hospitality, and 
 the extraordinary temptations in the way of interest- 
 ing things to see. 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur had kept his influence in all 
 social matters; the Prince had been very docile and 
 only too desirous to exert himself to be agreeable 
 in any quarter indicated. But when it came to mat- 
 ters in which Prince Alfred was really interested, 
 when it was a question of how many hours he should 
 spend on end watching experiments at the Institute 
 of Applied Electricity, "messing about," as Vandy 
 put it, with the newest hydro-aeroplane at the Avia- 
 tion College, or listening to the last word in wireless, 
 the equerry had to confess himself unable to restrain 
 his charge in any way whatever. "He wants to drink 
 
 84
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 the sea," was Vandy's explanation, and, as Vandy 
 had no special desire to drink anything that could not 
 be mixed in a glass, it was rather a rueful one. Al- 
 most the only respite Vandy knew was in the train, 
 when the Prince would divide his time in their Pull- 
 man drawing-room between the wide flying landscape 
 and impressive advertisements of such things as the 
 Power-Transmitting Unit of a Milliken-Milwaukee 
 Rear Axle, which addressed him in terms he found 
 invigorating even when he did not understand them. 
 
 "It's really the human equation back of the whole," 
 he would read aloud. "Of course it is. One sees, 
 Vandy, that it must be. They give a tremendous 
 chance, over here, don't they, to the human equation 1" 
 He perpetually harked back to the term. It began 
 to sum up the fascination America had for him. 
 The human equation very soon bored Vandy to ex- 
 tinction. 
 
 They were to have only two days in Pittsburgh, and 
 the Prince had been greatly looking forward to them. 
 
 They were to go to an hotel, Vandy having been 
 obliged to rule firmly against any more private hos- 
 pitality except in very special circumstances. Vandy 
 would have liked to skip Pittsburgh and its furnaces, 
 but the Prince would skip nothing. He was so 
 fatigued, however, that Vandy had made private ar- 
 rangements with the railway to stop the express at 
 a suburban platform to avoid the crowd; and from 
 
 85
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 there they had motored quickly to their hotel, where 
 they dined in peace and went to bed. 
 
 They had thought too little, both of them, of the 
 recent return of Prince Alfred's cough, which he had 
 almost lost at the end of the voyage. His cough was 
 an old, habitual possession, a thing other people 
 watched and worried over, a bore and a bogey much 
 at the service of his Aunt Georgina. He had not 
 even bothered about the usual remedies; indeed, Cat- 
 kin, when he remembered, had gone off with the 
 prescriptions, but it didn't matter tuppence ; medicine 
 made very little difference one way or the other. 
 There was a great deal too much to see and to do 
 to worry about his cough; it was overborne in the 
 rush of new experiences. He hardly noticed it. Nor 
 for that matter had his cough been particularly 
 troublesome the night before. He had gone to bed 
 dog tired and slept badly. 
 
 Then in the morning, just as he finished shaving, 
 he had a sudden tickling bout which he had to sit 
 down to, and a moment later there it was on his 
 handkerchief. He went in to Vandy with the bright- 
 stained thing in his hand. 
 
 "Cut yourself, dear boy?" asked the Colonel, sus- 
 pending his own razor. 
 
 "Yes, inside," the Prince told him. "They 
 warned me about this. I'm awfully sorry, Vandy, 
 but I'm afraid I am going to be a" he coughed 
 
 86
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 again, and the handkerchief showed redder "a nui- 
 sance," he finished. 
 
 "For God's sake lie down." The Colonel was 
 the whiter of the two. 
 
 Prince Alfred fell weakly upon the disarranged 
 bed and drew his legs up after him. Colonel Van- 
 deleur dashed to the telephone, but turned his head 
 at a sound from the bed. The Prince was waving 
 one hand in front of him. 
 
 "Of course not," said Vandy. Then he spoke into 
 the receiver. "His Royal Highness is rather over- 
 tired this morning and not altogether well. Will 
 you kindly give me the address of the leading phy- 
 sician here, in case the Prince should wish to see one 
 in the course of the day?" 
 
 He listened for the reply, anxiously watching his 
 charge, and Prince Alfred smiled weakly with his 
 eyes at his equerry, over the spotted handkerchief. 
 
 "Indeed! On the next floor. Number twenty- 
 two. Doctor who did you say? Atkins? Atkin- 
 son; Henry P. Atkinson. Thank you very much. 
 Shall you ring him up? No; no, thanks. I'll see 
 him, if necessary, in the course of the day. In now, 
 do you say? Oh, yes; thanks thanks very much." 
 
 "The best man in the city," he said tearing into a 
 coat. "Don't move till I get him," and disappeared. 
 
 By noon the next day several things had happened. 
 87
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 The hemorrhage, under the treatment of the luckily 
 so local doctor, had ceased, and not another soul knew 
 anything about it. Such was Dr. Henry P. Atkin- 
 son's remarkable discretion, a man with the firmest 
 lips, the most intrepid eyes and the squarest shoulders 
 our travelers had so far seen; a splendid fellow, be- 
 fore whom death must often have receded, with an 
 eye on those shoulders. His manner of taking his 
 royal patient in his stride won Prince Alfred's con- 
 fidence at once. Hardly aware, apparently, that his 
 patient represented anything but a rather serious 
 case, Dr. Henry showed himself a man, a brother, 
 and a friend, a new character in the old role of phy- 
 sician-in-ordinary and subject. Alfred watched his 
 movements about the room with lively curiosity. 
 "That fellow knows," he said to Vandy. 
 
 Dr. Atkinson saw the quick-gathering reporters 
 in the most sympathetic way. The Prince was suffer- 
 ing from exhaustion due to the heat and all that he 
 had insisted on doing in the heat. "From what 
 Colonel Vandeleur, his equerry, tells me, he's been 
 working as no Englishman, when he first sets foot in 
 this country, ought to work," said Dr. Atkinson. 
 "They're none of them keyed up to our climate, and 
 the Prince has been trying to take grand opera out 
 of himself from the word go. Now he's got to sub- 
 mit to a little tuning." Vandy cabled the whole truth 
 to the King, and telegraphed it to the Duke of Cam- 
 
 88
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 berley, Governor-General of Canada, Prince Alfred's 
 uncle, who was still, fortunately, in residence at Ot- 
 tawa. There at all events he would find temporary 
 rest and quiet; there at all events he would be at 
 home, it was considered, in the first difficulty and con- 
 sternation that the news brought with it. 
 
 Out of the Pittsburgh hotel he must be got at the 
 earliest moment possible; and long before the forty- 
 eight hours of absolute stillness enjoined by Dr. At- 
 kinson were over, an aide-de-camp and the viceregal 
 doctor had arrived from Ottawa, a special train had 
 been arranged with an invalid carriage, and on the 
 evening of the second day after the attack the little 
 company quickly slipped across the border. 
 
 Sir Randolph Perry, the distinguished specialist, 
 left Liverpool the same day by the Canadian Mail 
 for Halifax, taking with him, in the second class, Cat- 
 kin, silent and portentous, and two firm, high-colored, 
 middle-aged persons, easily recognizable in their dis- 
 creet traveling dress as the pick and flower of Lon- 
 don's trained nurses, the joint choice of Sir Randolph 
 and the Princess Georgina. 
 
 The Princess had seriously urged and threatened 
 going herself; it seemed that her duty lay very plainly 
 across the Atlantic. It was not until she was able 
 to say, "The King thinks it absolutely inadvisable 
 practically forbids it," that she abandoned the idea, 
 after facing it with fortitude for some hours. 
 
 89
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 The King had pointed out that Alfred had already 
 one aunt at his bedside, and might be disturbed by 
 two; also that, if members of the Family went hurry- 
 ing over to him, it would look uncommonly as if 
 "old Alfie's" last hour had come, which nobody had 
 the least reason to suppose. So Sir Randolph went, 
 and Catkin and the nurses, and Princess Georgina 
 sent by them a tin of remarkably strengthening ex- 
 tract of eggs, which had done her an immense amount 
 of good in the spring, and her fondest love. 
 
 Alfred stood the journey well, and the first of 
 the bulletins were mere colorless continuations of 
 what Dr. Atkinson had told the reporters in Pitts- 
 burgh. The patient's strength was "well maintained." 
 He was "taking nourishment at regular intervals." 
 The leading journal published the dietary. He was 
 sleeping well. For a mere case of nervous exhaustion, 
 partly induced by the heat, there were almost too 
 many bulletins, and their tone was too careful. But 
 there was all Canada alarmed and anxious, very much 
 aware of her rights where the Family was concerned, 
 and wanting to know. And the Duke was almost 
 superstitiously desirous to encourage Canada's con- 
 cern and desire to know, and was well aware of the 
 importance of bulletins. When he himself had been 
 down with pneumonia the previous spring, such a 
 message had throbbed out every hour or so, and the 
 country repaid the consideration with every evidence 
 
 90
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 of appreciation. The bulletins were from the be- 
 ginning a little heavily worded; but the first thing 
 that aroused suspicion was the postponement of the 
 Governor-General's tour in the West. Dates had 
 been made, important industrial features arranged, 
 a great canal waited the viceregal pleasure to link 
 the waters of the St. Lawrence with those of Hudson 
 Bay. The country had made up its mind that the 
 Prince, having recovered from his indisposition, 
 would abandon the high temperatures on the other 
 side of the line, and accompany his uncle to the coast 
 instead. The idea had been discussed everywhere 
 except at Rideau Hall. Then came the announce- 
 ment that the Duke would postpone his tour. Then, 
 thick and fast, hints and surmises, statements and 
 denials, the body of rumor that rides always in 
 advance of the truth. And at last the truth itself. 
 
 Prince Alfred was suffering from a serious affec- 
 tion of the lungs, to which he had been predisposed 
 since boyhood. The mischief was at present confined 
 to the top of the right lung. There was no actual 
 cavity, but a general softness of tissue. The results 
 of the bacteriological examination were withheld; but 
 the information was definite enough without them. 
 Prince Alfred, in the old-fashioned phrase, had con- 
 sumption; a perfectly curable case, however, with 
 many encouraging features; no reason why His Royal 
 Highness's lung should not be as sound as a bell in,
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 say, a year. The new treatment the treatment was 
 as new as ever had produced amazing results in 
 cases far less hopeful, particularly the new French 
 treatment, Dr. Arcot's, and the Americans were neck 
 and neck with him on different lines. With one ac- 
 cord a continent bade His Royal Highness "buck 
 up," and with another it performed wonders of in- 
 genuity in making immediate arrangements for him. 
 
 The second set of symptoms, alarmingly different, 
 appeared on the day of Sir Randolph Perry's arrival 
 from England. That specialist had provisionally 
 decided, on the way from the station, that his patient 
 should leave the midsummer climate of Ottawa with- 
 out an unnecessary hour's delay. As he drove across 
 the bridge over the tumbling river and sniffed the 
 fine spray that cooled the temperature for perhaps 
 twenty yards there, Sir Randolph said to himself that 
 it was the first tolerable mouthful of air he had had 
 since he left the ship. Sir Randolph was round and 
 red and ample, with a white mustache and a cheek 
 that quivered with well-being; and he depended very 
 much on his own air, or the variety at his disposal 
 within a hundred miles of London. 
 
 "I'll get him home by the next ship," he said to 
 himself, while refraining, as became the top of his 
 profession, from uselessly questioning the A.D.C. 
 beside him in the motor. Half an hour later he had 
 changed his mind. It was inadvisable to move the 
 
 92
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Prince. Absolute rest and a milk diet. General 
 approval of the line taken by the Duke's man. A 
 slight change in one of the prescriptions. Nothing 
 radical, but we'll try a bottle of this. Watching. 
 Fresh air, of course ; it might not do everything, but 
 you could do nothing without it. Was a tent pos- 
 sible? Well, then, a tent. Too hot in the middle 
 of the day? Then pitch the tent under a tree a 
 big, three-roomed, regulation fellow, thirty-eight by 
 twenty-seven. Sir Randolph had lived in one him- 
 self, on maneuvers, with ideal comfort for weeks at 
 a time. At headquarters, of course, in play-fights. 
 No such luxury for army doctors on actual service. 
 It transpired that Sir Randolph's career had begun 
 only when most people's finished in his years of 
 pensioned retirement. But that was by the way. 
 
 The Governor-General, as they enjoyed their cigar- 
 ettes together on a garden seat after luncheon, found 
 Sir Randolph an agreeable, entertaining fellow, who 
 smacked very pleasantly of town. When the talk 
 was of the patient he showed the usual professional 
 reserve in a manner which impressed His Excellency 
 as the very flower of professional form. He said 
 cheerful things with his mouth, and serious ones with 
 his eyes eyes which rested on his interlocutor with 
 the effect of making a confidence. His Highness 
 learned, entirely, if he didn't mind, between them- 
 selves, that Sir Randolph had disapproved of this 
 
 93
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 tour for the Prince from the beginning. "There was 
 crepitation in the left apex, sir, six months ago. I 
 heard it. The other fellows couldn't. Later, when 
 we went over him again, for some reason known only 
 to God Almighty, it had disappeared. I couldn't 
 insist, in face of that, of course." As to the Arcot 
 treatment well, Sir Randolph had an open mind. 
 He personally did not feel convinced that any tuber- 
 culo-toxin had wholly established itself. But there 
 was no reason why it shouldn't be given a trial. As 
 a matter of fact, Sir Randolph had the serum with 
 him. But for the present, till this immediate pros- 
 tration was over, nursing, dieting, watching. The 
 temperature chart was puzzling, and Sir Randolph 
 spoke gravely of the new symptoms and what they 
 might establish. It would be easy, however, to come 
 too soon to such a conclusion, and Sir Randolph pro- 
 duced so many and such technical reasons to the con- 
 trary that the Duke went away to wire to Windsor 
 with anxiety sensibly allayed. 
 
 Sir Randolph himself wrote his first bulletin, in 
 which he made no mention of the new and serious 
 development which, in his opinion, had been made 
 in the course of the royal patient's disease. 
 
 Three anxious days later, after dinner, the Duke, 
 with an expression of concern, took the London 
 specialist aside. 
 
 "The fact is, Perry," he said, "an awkward situ- 
 
 94
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 ation has arisen, which I can only lay before you. 
 My nephew has expressed a wish a whim I consider 
 it, but he puts it very strongly to see the fellow who 
 looked after him the other day in Pittsburgh. Atkin- 
 son, I think his name is. Seems he has taken an 
 extraordinary fancy to the fellow. Now would 
 
 "Let him come, sir. By all means let him come," 
 responded Sir Randolph with cordial tolerance, "so 
 long as it's understood / haven't asked for him. Un- 
 less you yourself, sir, would be better satisfied 
 to " 
 
 "Lord, no! I never heard of the fellow before. 
 But if it would afford my poor nephew any satisfac- 
 tion " 
 
 "By all means," said Sir Randolph. "I perfectly 
 understand. By all means." 
 
 His Highness put a friendly hand under the doc- 
 tor's elbow. "It's very good of you, Perry," he said. 
 "I don't, as a matter of fact, like to deny the boy."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE Military Secretary sent for Dr. Atkinson, 
 but there was a friend for whom Prince Al- 
 fred sent himself. 
 
 Many motors and carriages had come and gone 
 along the wooded drive to Rideau Hall, and the sen- 
 tries on duty paid little attention to the taxicab that 
 slid up behind the Chief Justice's big limousine, or 
 to the dusty young man who got out of it, until he 
 addressed one of them. 
 
 "How can I get this taken in to the Prince?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "This" was his card. His way of speaking was 
 direct and businesslike, without either a pleasant or 
 a distant affectation, and the guard, who was a Cock- 
 ney, looked at him as if he took a little too much for 
 granted. 
 
 "You'll find His Royal 'Ighness's visitors' book 
 just inside the door, sir," he replied, and looked in 
 front of him with a rigidity that said plainly what 
 was his business and what was not. 
 
 The inquirer went up the steps, and, as he glanced 
 
 96
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 about him at the top of them, a young man in uniform 
 came out of the aides' room into the hall. He also 
 indicated the visitors' book. "I'm afraid the Prince 
 cannot see you," he said, "but won't you write your 
 name? The book is taken to him every evening." 
 
 "I will with pleasure," said the new arrival, who 
 had the air of having come straight from the train. 
 Indeed, a suitcase proclaimed it on the taxi beside 
 the driver. "But I think Prince Alfred expects me. 
 I had a telegram from him yesterday." 
 
 "Oh, then, of course " said Captain Grinling. 
 "Er might I ask your name? And will you come 
 this way?" 
 
 He took the visitor, with an air of mingled con- 
 straint and deference, into the aides' room and left 
 him there in the company of an Irish terrier who did 
 all he could to be polite. 
 
 After a perceptible time he returned, accompanied 
 by Colonel Vandeleur, who held out a winning hand. 
 
 "Mr. Youghall, I believe. Mr. Youghall is a 
 college friend of the Prince, Grinling. Prince A1-: 
 fred is much looking forward to seeing you, Mr. 
 Youghall, but you won't mind my telling you, I know, 
 that a great exception has been made; he is allowed 
 no visitors. As a matter of fact, none of us knew 
 of his having summoned you. And I must beg of 
 you you will understand, I know to be very quiet 
 and very brief." 
 
 97
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 They were walking through the house as he spoke. 
 Youghall remembered afterward a procession of 
 rooms. He also remembered the swinging of 
 Colonel Vandeleur's sword as he led the way, and 
 his creaseless tunic and general look of fine feather. 
 Already, by the mere person of the equerry on duty, 
 formal, pleasant and distant, he felt relegated and 
 prescribed to his place. A little daunting chill fell 
 upon his eagerness. 
 
 "I hope " he hesitated. 
 
 "There has been no further return of the hemor- 
 rhage, but His Royal Highness is naturally very 
 weak. Sir Randolph thinks it unlikely that we can 
 get him home before the end of the month. This 
 way. He is camped out here, day and night." 
 
 They stepped, as he spoke, out of a French win- 
 dow into the garden. Beyond the flower-beds, in a 
 shady spot where the trees began, Youghall saw a 
 group of tents, before one of them a couple of 
 stationary tunics that challenged the red of the roses. 
 
 The daunting chill crept higher about his heart. 
 He answered Vandeleur's admonitions with a me- 
 chanical, "Oh, yes of course; I quite understand," 
 but he could not have repeated them. The guard 
 before the tent stood ironical in the light of the fear 
 within it. Wasn't he already far enough away from 
 them all dear old "Cakes"? Vandeleur's very 
 stride, along the path beside him, conveyed some- 
 
 98
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 thing perfunctory and unfeeling. Youghall had a 
 sense, too, that he was keeping back things. These 
 superior words, for all their sound of deep concern, 
 were telling no more than was said in the printed 
 bulletin at the gate. "Terrible shock to the King," 
 were the last of them that Youghall heard as they 
 passed the saluting sentries and Vandeleur gently 
 pushed open the fly-screen that had replaced the flap 
 of the inner wall of the tent. 
 
 Youghall, entering behind him, saw nothing be- 
 yond his uniformed person but the end of the bed, 
 as the equerry made two steps toward it and said 
 with precision: "Mr. Arthur Youghall, sir." 
 
 Then he stepped aside and back, and at the same 
 moment Youghall had the impression of a nurse's 
 figure disappearing through the wall of the tent 
 beyond. But all he truly saw was the white face 
 on the pillow with the darkness round the eyes and 
 that straight black look about the lips, like a beauti- 
 ful, blurred medieval mask. It was the beauty of 
 it and the blurring that cried out first and so caught 
 Youghall about the heart that he stood silent beside 
 the bed, grasping the hand that came out to him, and 
 fighting to keep his mouth from the betrayal of tears. 
 
 The face on the pillow smiled and spoke; some- 
 thing familiar came back. "Thank you so much for 
 writing, Youghall," said Prince Alfred. "Your let- 
 ter bucked me up no end for the time. Don't 
 
 99
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 talk, old chap. Let me. There's so awfully little 
 time. Vandy made me promise not more than 
 ten minutes. I wanted to see you, so I got Catkin 
 to wire." He pointed to a chair, and, as Youghall 
 took it, made a gesture that he should pull it closer, 
 closer still. "Catkin is perfectly invaluable, Youg- 
 hall. He does as I tell him. The others all seem 
 to think I'm here to take orders. Look here, Youg- 
 hall I'm not going to get better, you know." 
 
 Youghall's face quieted and straightened. He 
 leaned forward and knotted his hands round his knee. 
 
 "Not so fast, dear old man. Not so fast, surely. 
 You think you won't. Well, you mustn't think you 
 won't, of course, if you want to." 
 
 "Thinking won't alter it. I'll stagger back to 
 England, and I don't mind dying in itself. It's the 
 beastly public way I'll have to do it that I hate to 
 think of. And please don't contradict me, Youghall. 
 I know you want to buck me up and all that, but there 
 isn't time. Just accept that I'm not going to get 
 better, and we can get on." 
 
 Youghall nodded, with his face in arms. 
 
 "You know I was in Washington. I stayed with 
 the Phippses dear people. Of the very best. 
 President, as you know, Mr. Phipps happens to be, 
 and a jolly good president, too, I should say. There 
 was a girl there a great friend of theirs " 
 
 Prince Alfred stopped and searched the face of 
 
 100
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 his brother man for some hint of consternation. It 
 did not change, except to grow braver and kinder, 
 nor did Youghall speak. "You might help a fellow 
 out." 
 
 "An unusual sort of girl?" 
 
 "I thought so very. We became friends and I 
 should have liked to know her better. But her peo- 
 ple lugged her off or something, and it couldn't be 
 done. So that's all as it should be, no doubt. But 
 I have a notion that I'd like to be remembered do 
 you see, Youghall ? by that particular girl and I've 
 hit on a way to do it. I want you to take something 
 and give it to her and just say, 'He thinks you might 
 like to keep this.' Don't make any fuss. Just say 
 I sent it on the chance. And she's not to bother to 
 write or anything. You will do that?" 
 
 "Yes," said Youghall, "of course; I will do that." 
 He waited, all tenderness, for the name, but it did 
 not immediately come. 
 
 "Her father was once president and she lost her 
 mother when she was very young," Prince Alfred 
 went on, looking out where the sun blazed on the 
 firs and the waving maples, and smiling to himself. 
 
 "Yes," said Youghall, and looked out, too, at the 
 maples. 
 
 "I'm afraid it may be some trouble, for I haven't 
 the least idea where she is, but I hope you won't mind. 
 You and Longworth were the only ones I could ask, 
 
 101
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 and I preferred you because I thought she and I would 
 both like it better if my messenger were one of my 
 own people." 
 
 One hand fumbled beneath his pillow, and Youg- 
 hall thought he wanted it rearranged. "Can I help 
 you?" he said, and his heart, full as it was of pity 
 and love, found room for pride and enchantment at 
 "my messenger." 
 
 "No I've got it." The head on the pillow 
 turned away and glanced down at something in the 
 hand beneath the bedclothes. 
 
 It was just then that the clapping of Vandy's 
 swordsheath against his leg sounded along the path 
 outside the tent. 
 
 "Quick!" said Alfred, and held out his hand, in 
 which the thing lay, small and round. 
 
 Youghall, to take it, fell forward on one knee. 
 It was not pure awkwardness, for there was a grace 
 of the heart in it. Vandy was pushing in, and one 
 thing had been forgotten. "Name?" Youghall's 
 lips formed silently, looking at the Prince. Vandy 
 was there to hear. 
 
 "I'm afraid " began the Colonel, kindly but 
 firmly. 
 
 "All right; we had finished," said Prince Alfred. 
 "It was awfully good of you to come. Good-by 
 Lanchester good-by. You won't forget." 
 
 "Good-by, sir," Youghall said. "I won't forget." 
 
 102
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Did you find him very depressed?" asked Colonel 
 Vandeleur outside. 
 
 "I think not no." 
 
 "A little excited, I fancy. I noticed he called you 
 Lanchester." 
 
 "Yes, he did, didn't he? There was a man of that 
 name at Oxford," said Youghall. 
 
 Colonel Vandeleur saw him politely into his taxi, 
 and all the way Youghall felt a warm spot in his 
 waistcoat pocket, where lay nothing more or less 
 valuable than an oxidized button with a laurel wreath 
 on it, and a bugle, and the crown of England.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 TWO days later Dr. Atkinson arrived in the 
 evening from Pittsburgh. He was sent for 
 because Prince Alfred wanted him, and for 
 that reason only so much was delicately conveyed 
 to him from the beginning, and not so delicately 
 either as to fail to put him a little on his mettle about 
 it. H. P. Atkinson was not precisely a nobody, be 
 it understood. So far as degrees went, both Ameri- 
 can and European, there were not ten practitioners 
 in the United States who could show better, and, 
 although a young man, Dr. Atkinson's name was 
 already recognizable in the literatures and congresses 
 of his profession. While it could not yet be said 
 that he had arrived, he was on-coming, and he very 
 intensely meant to come on. Research and the too 
 constant habit of conferences to meet in Rome or 
 Paris kept him poor, also perhaps the general fas- 
 cination his work had for him. "If Atkinson would 
 only specialize practically," his friends said of him; 
 but he had an incurable tendency to specialize in di- 
 rections of pure theory which he balanced with a 
 
 104
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 capacity to cure people of anything and everything, 
 deplorable from the point of view of a reputation. 
 He meant to come on, but by means the most legiti- 
 mate. He turned an involuntarily cold shoulder to 
 advertisement; not that he did not see its uses, but 
 the thing humiliated him. When the telegram came 
 from the Military Secretary at Rideau Hall, he was 
 on the point of taking a fortnight's fishing up the 
 Saguenay, and had already arranged his work. He 
 bestowed the wire in an inside pocket with the re- 
 flection that it might have been a good deal more 
 inconvenient, and told nobody of the change in his 
 destination but the booking clerk at the railway sta- 
 tion. Certainly he was not an advertiser. 
 
 They could not have known at Rideau Hall that 
 Dr. Atkinson would do this, but it justified them in 
 their own decision to keep his arrival out of the 
 Viceregal Court Circular for the day. It was the 
 Duke's idea. He thought that the summoning, in 
 addition to the Staff doctor and the London specialist, 
 of an American medical man might hurt the feelings 
 of the profession in Canada. So, of course, it might. 
 The Duke was very clever about such things, and in 
 this case he consulted Sir Randolph Perry, who 
 agreed. "Keep it informal," said Sir Randolph, 
 "and no harm will be done. Make it, so to speak, 
 official, and we shall have all the local fellows on 
 their hind legs." So the names of Lord Alfred 
 
 105
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Yavelly and the Hon. Cecil Hyndham, who arrived 
 by the same train, duly appeared in the daily com- 
 munication of viceregal items to the press, and that 
 of Dr. Henry P. Atkinson, of Pittsburgh, did not. 
 The omission, when he noticed it in the Citizen next 
 morning, nettled the young man, who, though no 
 advertiser, was quite self-respectfully human; and 
 it probably had something to do with his adding a 
 postscript to a letter. The letter was written to his 
 locum tenens, and concerned a case left in his care. 
 The postscript explained the Ottawa address. 
 
 "I am here for a day or two to see the Prince, ap- 
 parently at his request certainly not at Perry's. I 
 am not quite sure that the visit is consultative, but I 
 don't propose to understand it, of course, in any other 
 sense. As I see my way to certain recommendations, 
 and it may take a little time to make them effective, 
 you had better address me, till I wire, as above." 
 
 The next day the Pittsburgh papers, and the day 
 after all the world, knew that Dr. Henry P. Atkin- 
 son, to whose care Prince Alfred had been confided 
 when the symptoms of his illness first appeared at 
 Pittsburgh, had been summoned to His Royal High- 
 ness's bedside at Ottawa. The Duke was relieved to 
 notice that there were no protests from the profession 
 in Canada, who seemed to think it, on the whole, a 
 natural thing to happen. 
 
 And His Highness could not deny, would have 
 
 106
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 been the last to deny, the curious change for the 
 better in his nephew's condition, which coincided 
 with Dr. Atkinson's arrival, impossible as it was to 
 refer to before Perry. Although there were abso- 
 lutely no grounds for sensitiveness on Perry's part 
 Not the smallest alteration having been made in 
 the treatment, as the result of Atkinson's arrival, the 
 improvement in the patient must necessarily be 
 put down to the treatment. Yet the coincidence was 
 odd. Mrs. Gold, the day-nurse, as Sir Randolph's 
 choice and Sir Randolph's main support, found a 
 difficulty in knowing "what to make of" the Ameri- 
 can doctor, and showed in various subtle ways, which 
 were quite lost upon Dr. Henry, that she made rather 
 little. But even Mrs. Gold had to admit that from 
 the hour when Dr. Atkinson drew a chair under his 
 downright person by His Royal Highness's bed, hav- 
 ing first taken His Royal Highness's hand, not for 
 any purpose more professional than to shake it even 
 Mrs. Gold had to admit that from that hour His 
 Royal Highness began to get back his color. The 
 mask slipped off the sharply lined head, which had 
 been lying almost as still as a Crusader's on a stone 
 pillow; and it turned into that of a weak and restless 
 young man who had questions to ask and demands 
 to make. 
 
 "I say," he said to Dr. Atkinson at the end of his 
 first visit, "how long can you stay?" 
 
 107
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "That depends," the American smiled, "but prob- 
 ably about as long as I'm wanted." 
 
 "Are you stopping in the house?" asked Prince 
 Alfred. ' 
 
 "I am yes. I found it had been arranged, very 
 kindly." 
 
 "Well look here I don't think that's a good 
 scheme, you know. Old Perry, you see naturally. 
 And my uncle, you see he's the dearest old boy, 
 but he'll be getting orders from home. They think 
 no end of Perry at home. You may find it awkward, 
 stopping here. But I don't want you to leave the 
 town. Perch at a hotel, will you ?" 
 
 "As soon as I civilly can," said Dr. Atkinson. 
 "To-morrow, perhaps. I must have a serious talk 
 with Sir Randolph first. So far, I've been able to 
 see him only at meals." 
 
 "That's just it," frowned Prince Alfred. "Well 
 look here, Atkinson. I haven't a notion what they 
 mean to do with me, you know. They don't tell me. 
 All I know is I won't be effectively consulted. I 
 never have been, you know. There's a pretence, but, 
 as a matter of fact one isn't." 
 
 Dr. Atkinson nodded, with sympathy and under- 
 standing, and an interest that blazed in spite of all 
 his reticence. The plight of the Prince was hardly 
 less appealing than the plight of the patient. He 
 had heard of such things, and in the American ver- 
 
 108
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 sion, by which they had not suffered in the telling. 
 His eye hardened as he remembered them. 
 
 "They made no fuss about my sending for you. 
 I think they thought I was going out," Prince Alfred 
 went on with satisfaction. "And now I want to 
 make it quite clear, Atkinson, that IVe called you in 
 see ? I'm of age, and all that, you know I have 
 a right to my own doctor, haven't I?" 
 
 "The circumstances," said Dr. Atkinson, "are, of 
 course, rather special; but morally, at least, I should 
 think that was so." 
 
 "It isn't that I'm not satisfied with old Perry and 
 my uncle's chap, but I want another opinion." 
 
 "I understand." 
 
 Prince Alfred searched the eye that was "bent upon 
 him for an instant. Then he said : 
 
 "This is the whole of it. I want an opinion that 
 isn't influenced by the highest considerations. Do 
 you know what I mean?" 
 
 Dr. Atkinson laughed, but his lips looked firmer 
 than ever afterwards. 
 
 "I think I do," he said. 
 
 "And, look here I say do you mind? I'd like 
 to pay you myself. Catkin!" The valet, passing 
 on the other side of the fly-screen, came in. "I say, 
 Catkin, where's my check book?" 
 
 "In Your Royal Highness's despatch-box, sir, and 
 that's with the Colonel, sir." 
 
 109
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Oh. No you needn't get it. But you've got 
 some money of mine Catkin. How much have 
 you got? Have you got ten guineas?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, I have twelve pound ten, sir, if you 
 require it." 
 
 Catkin's expression dedicated the whole of his 
 small change as well as his life and his person if His 
 Royal Highness should require it. 
 
 "Oh, come," laughed Dr. Atkinson, no longer to be 
 repressed. "Won't you wait until I send in my bill?" 
 
 "No, I won't. I want, please, to pay you a fee 
 in advance. Go and get it, Catkin." 
 
 Catkin went, and Dr. Atkinson, plunged in reflec- 
 tion, sat silent by the bed. 
 
 "That's quite a dependable fellow, I should say," 
 he remarked, in the half absent tone of doctors' con- 
 versation, "but I don't seem to remember him in 
 Pittsburgh." 
 
 "Catkin? Oh the best. No, he wasn't there. 
 Been sent home. Sort of silly idea I had that I 
 wanted to roll up my own nightshirt. Didn't work 
 Vandy rolled it up. Then they yanked poor old 
 Cat back again. I was precious glad." 
 
 Catkin came in, looking infinitely dependable, with 
 the flush that results from going hurriedly to the 
 bottom of a trunk. The gold, in an envelope on 
 a salver, bore no more relation to Catkin than if it 
 had just been minted. 
 
 no
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 The next moment was as full of reluctance as any 
 that Dr. Atkinson's practice had yet brought him. 
 It was odd, it was ridiculous, but he had a sudden 
 thrill of dislike to the sovereigns the Prince offered 
 him. No well-to-do patient's money had ever affected 
 him in such a way before, and this being plainly Cat- 
 kin's had nothing to do with it. Perhaps, though, 
 obscurely it had. If Catkin, a mere valet, could It 
 all flashed through him, looking at the envelope in 
 Alfred's thin fingers, with a constriction of the heart. 
 The heart of a good American, trying to throb per- 
 haps, so long after, to the old music of Ich dien. . . ,., 
 It passed, of course. 
 
 The Prince looked worriedly at the envelope swing- 
 ing from his fingers, and said: 
 
 "I haven't the least idea your traveling expenses 
 and all that. You were a brick to come, Atkinson. 
 And, of course, you will send in I mean this, you 
 know, is only to get you " 
 
 Dr. Atkinson took the envelope, folded it across, 
 and bestowed it carefully in his waistcoat pocket. 
 
 "Prince," he said with a smile, "you've got me all 
 right for all I'm worth." 
 
 It was that same day, in the afternoon, that Mrs. 
 Gold told the night-nurse she believed Sir Randolph 
 was beginning to see some little improvement.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 AFTER dinner and billiards the Military Secre- 
 tary, Major Molyneux Winter, was doing 
 his duty toward the American doctor by 
 smoking a parting cigar with him. 
 
 "It used to be good," said Major Winter of the 
 fishing about Dent du Loup, "but there's a big hotel 
 there now, and every pool within a dozen miles stinks 
 of money. However, you can pick up your Johnny 
 Couteau there all right, and push on up river. If, 
 as you propose, you leave Ottawa to-morrow, the 
 eleven-five is the best train. That arrives you at 
 Montreal " 
 
 Dr. Atkinson had removed his cigar, and was con- 
 sidering the ash of it. 
 
 "You misunderstand me, Major," he said. "I 
 feel that I have trespassed upon the hospitality 
 of the Governor-General long enough, and I pro- 
 pose to go to-morrow to a friend in the town 
 McGillivray, Dr. McGillivray. Perhaps you know 
 him." 
 
 "I know the name," said Major Winter. 
 
 112
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "But I should not feel justified in leaving the 
 Prince at present." 
 
 "Oh, but you mustn't spoil your holiday, Dr. At- 
 kinson. You needn't worry about Prince Alfred. 
 Sir Randolph is responsible, you know." 
 
 "I should be glad to think so. But Prince Alfred 
 this morning very directly and specifically made me 
 responsible." 
 
 "Oh, but I beg your pardon, but he couldn't do 
 that without the Duke's leave, you know." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Well I'm bound to explain to you that the 
 King has sent Perry, Dr. Atkinson. Sir Randolph 
 isone of the physicians-in-ordinary sort of family 
 doctor to the Court, you know, besides being an 
 absolutely top-hole specialist for lungs." 
 
 "I quite understand the King's point of view, but 
 my patient doesn't seem to be affected by it." 
 
 "Oh, I say!" Major Winter faced round rather 
 stiff and square. "Well, but I've nothing to do 
 with it, of course. You'd better talk to Vandeleur. 
 But I should say that in a matter of that kind the 
 Prince would be bound to some extent by Court eti- 
 quette, you know. The King's wishes are com- 
 mands, especially where members of the royal house- 
 hold are concerned. But don't take it from me, you 
 know. It's Vandeleur's job. You talk to Vande- 
 leur."
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Dr. Atkinson smoked on in a silence which seemed 
 deliberate. 
 
 "If the Prince doesn't feel bound by Court eti- 
 quette, I don't see why I should," he replied pres- 
 ently. 
 
 "I see your point. But" Major Winter was 
 warming to indiscretion "excuse my mentioning it, 
 but doesn't the etiquette of your own shop rather 
 come in, doctor? I suppose you admit that Sir Ran- 
 dolph's in charge of the case." 
 
 Dr. Atkinson got up from the bench and stepped 
 off the dais to give himself the freedom of a few 
 paces in front of it. 
 
 "I might have refused to come on that account," 
 he said, "but I supposed, of course, that the visit was 
 consultative ' ' 
 
 "So it was, I am sure," Major Winter hastened 
 to say. "I know nothing whatever about it, but no 
 doubt it was." 
 
 "And, now that I am here," Dr. Atkinson went 
 on quietly, "I think that any objection of that sort 
 is properly met by the consideration that the patient 
 was placed in my hands in the beginning." 
 
 The Military Secretary, who had been charged 
 with the tactful fixing up of Dr. Atkinson's departure, 
 and who felt that he had been as little tactful as suc- 
 cessful, looked embarrassed. He reflected gratefully 
 that Americans were business men and accustomed to 
 
 114
 
 direct methods. "The fellow doesn't seem offended," 
 he thought. 
 
 "Well, all I can say is, talk to Vandeleur," he re- 
 peated. 
 
 "I don't think that is necessary at present. But 
 I should like to talk with as little delay as pos- 
 sible if you will be good enough to arrange it 
 for me, Major to the Duke and to Sir Randolph 
 Perry." 
 
 "Separately or together?" 
 
 "Separately at first. Together later, perhaps. 
 As to the hour, I suggest to-morrow morning, but I 
 am entirely, of course, at their disposal. Perhaps 
 you will mention that I shall be staying on in Ottawa 
 for the present. But I may tell you, at your dis- 
 cretion, that in my opinion there is urgent need for 
 effective consultation, and that from my point of view 
 loss of time is extremely prejudicial. Good night." 
 
 "Good night to you," said Major Winter. 
 
 When the Duke was told at ten the next morning 
 of Prince Alfred's private arrangement with Dr. 
 Atkinson, he said it was the devil. He said it was 
 the very devil. Here was Perry, he said. Did the 
 fellow expect to supersede Perry? What was to be 
 said to Perry, and what could Perry be expected to 
 say? These medical fellows wanted very careful 
 handling, especially men at the very top of the tree, 
 like Perry. Winter could see for himself that it was 
 
 "5
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 the devil. The very devil. Suppose Perry turned 
 rusty and threw up the case. He didn't say it was 
 probable, but if he did? Who could blame him? 
 He would have the whole of the profession behind 
 his back in England, anyhow. He, the Duke, 
 would have to make it a personal matter with Perry, 
 a thing which it was possible to be obliged to do a 
 trifle too often, by Gad. His poor nephew had been 
 ill advised, to say the least of it, very ill advised. 
 The Duke did not pause to consider that his nephew 
 in this step could not well have received any advice. 
 He did not pause to consider anything, but the com- 
 plications the step had caused. Complications with 
 Sir Randolph Perry complications with Bucking- 
 ham Palace. The Duke stood before the fireplace 
 of the room in which he usually received the Prime 
 Minister an undeservedly ruffled Governor-General; 
 and Major Molyneux Winter, whose duty it was to 
 keep the Duke's path free of just such things as com- 
 plications, drooped contritely upon one foot on the 
 other side of the table. 
 
 "Well, Winter," the Duke summed up, "we shall 
 want something more definite than this, you know 
 we shall want to know precisely where we stand with 
 this Pittsburgh fellow. You must see Vandeleur at 
 once, and find out exactly what did happen. It may 
 have been a mere politeness on my nephew's part. 
 I must get to the bottom of it before I see Atkinson 
 
 116
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 officially, if I am obliged to. Go and talk to Van- 
 deleur." 
 
 Major Winter went and found the equerry asking 
 for him. Colonel Vandy had been already sum- 
 moned by the Prince, and already told exactly what 
 did happen, Catkin supplying anything his master 
 had forgotten. 
 
 "It was clever of him to have Catkin there," added 
 the Colonel. 
 
 They talked it over together, these two gentlemen 
 in perfect health, talked it over heavily from the 
 point of view of an outraged Court and a Staff that 
 might be held responsible. Then Major Winter 
 took Colonel Vandeleur to the Duke, the two measur- 
 ing the corridors with long, important steps. Having 
 heard, as he said, the whole story, the Duke decided 
 that there was nothing for it but to send for Perry. 
 "It all depends," said the Duke, "on Perry." 
 
 So Perry was sent for, Vandy and the Major 
 leaving the viceregal presence not unwillingly for the 
 purpose, with measured steps and all discretion. 
 "Whatever happens," Major Winter told his com- 
 panion in perplexity, "the papers mustn't get hold 
 of this," and Colonel Vandeleur said "No, by Jove." 
 They found Sir Randolph rubbing his hands. He 
 showed them the morning chart, comparing it with 
 that of the same day the week before. He told 
 them what one or two of the indications meant. He 
 
 117
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 was just about to send the chart to the Duke; now 
 he would take it instead, very glad of the chance so 
 early in the day. He, Sir Randolph, began to see 
 his way. 
 
 "Whom shall I get hold of?" he asked. 
 
 "Captain Grinling's on duty, sir, but I'll take you 
 myself," said the Military Secretary with a gravity 
 that made Sir Randolph give him a sharp glance. 
 He was obviously full of repressed information, and 
 the little red doctor kept pace with him feeling more 
 professional than at any moment since his arrival. 
 Major Winter ushered him in and withdrew, but 
 remained in attendance, and when the telephone bell 
 rang in the A.D.C.s' room it was he who came. Sir 
 Randolph by this time knew his way quite well about 
 the house; but the Duke, upon points of etiquette, 
 was extremely particular. Major Winter found his 
 master beaming, and Sir Randolph even more radiant 
 than usual. There had plainly been no situation; 
 when the Major returned, after seeing Sir Randolph 
 to the foot of the stairs, the Duke told him there 
 had not. 
 
 "I must say," the Duke told him, "Perry took it 
 awfully well. Awfully well, you know. Perfectly 
 willing in fact, insists that my nephew's wish must 
 cancel every other consideration. Absolutely. Spoke 
 quite handsomely of Atkinson, I must say. Doesn't 
 understand it as an abdication on his own part in any 
 
 118
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 way, but is willing to accept Atkinson in practically 
 any capacity that will gratify poor Alfie. Seems 
 there is no possibility of two opinions on the case, 
 which is lucky, of course. And Perry expects now to 
 be able to get him off in a week's time suggests the 
 Empress boat leaving Quebec next Saturday. Upon 
 that point, of course, we can get orders. Perry's 
 view is not likely to be questioned at home. Mean- 
 while, no difficulty whatever about Atkinson. Great 
 relief to me. Just see the chap will you, Winter? 
 and say that I particularly hope that he will stop 
 on with us here. Much the best arrangement. 
 I hope Perry's management of this difficult matter 
 will meet with suitable recognition. A baronetcy 
 quite probable. He deserves it. And he shall have 
 my good word I promise you that."
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 MAJOR MOLYNEUX WINTER was not, 
 perhaps, too well qualified for the post he 
 held. Dauntless in the face of the enemy, 
 and really excellent at household accounts, even vice- 
 regal ones, which require an eagle eye, he could never 
 be quite depended upon not to say almost exactly 
 what was in his mind. He said it now, to Dr. At- 
 kinson, in the satisfaction of having persuaded the 
 doctor that, his attendance on the Prince being fully 
 acknowledged, he would be well advised to stay on at 
 Rideau Hall. 
 
 "You'd much better be on the spot," Major Win- 
 ter had urged candidly, and Dr. Atkinson, thinking it 
 over, agreed. 
 
 "It's very kind of the Governor-General, I'm 
 sure," he said, "but what am I to say to McGilli- 
 vray?" 
 
 "Oh, just tell him you've been invited. It's 
 really," smiled Winter, "a command, you know." 
 
 "Oh, well, that's simple," Dr. Atkinson said, think- 
 ing of the reasons he would give McGillivray. 
 
 120
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "By good luck it's all fairly simple," replied 
 jor Winter. "Sir Randolph says there can't be two 
 opinions on the case." 
 
 "Does he? Ah!" said Dr. Atkinson thoughtfully. 
 "Well, I'm to see him at twelve, you say? Very 
 good. Please convey to the Duke my appreciation 
 of his hospitality, and either my best thanks or my 
 implicit obedience, whichever meets the case. I'll 
 stay, anyhow." 
 
 In the exciting week that followed, Major Winter 
 was often given credit for at least that triumph of 
 diplomacy. The Pittsburgh doctor was in the house ; 
 he could be placed under some sort of restraint; 
 could be sent for to the library, met on the stairs, 
 got hold of over coffee after lunch, or port after din- 
 ner. He could be kept in touch, not only with the 
 patient's hourly condition, which was the reason the 
 world had to be satisfied with, but with the high 
 play of messages and intimations that passed between 
 the Governor-General and Buckingham Palace; he 
 could be instructed in the significance of this, and 
 warned of the gravity of that. Above all, he could 
 be kept, as a guest of the house, in relations of even 
 more than professional confidence. It was impos- 
 sible, at all events, for him to give any hint of his 
 diagnosis or his recommendations outside, whether 
 they were accepted or not. 
 
 Whether they weretfto be accepted, that was what 
 
 121
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 mattered so immensely, apparently first to King John, 
 and the Foreign Office and the Duchess of Alten- 
 burg, then to the Duke of Camberley, and his staff, 
 and, most of all, judging by activity, to Sir Randolph 
 Perry, K.C.B., as was reasonable, for his professional 
 reputation was at stake. That it could matter to 
 the patient was a view that seemed peculiar to him- 
 self and his American adviser, who held it, however, 
 strongly enough for six. 
 
 The state of war was declared at noon on the 
 day of Dr. Atkinson's first professional meeting with 
 Sir Randolph, which will be remembered to have 
 been arranged for twelve o'clock. Doors closed upon 
 the two which cannot be opened, which never, as a 
 matter of fact, were completely opened, even to his- 
 tory, but anyone might know that a suave and genial 
 Sir Randolph went in, of normal color, and a dogged 
 and belligerent Sir Randolph came out, several shades 
 redder. I must let the word belligerent stand; it 
 did express him, such an astonishing change there 
 was. Sir Randolph's courtesy, Sir Randolph's con- 
 fidence, had been ill rewarded there could be, it 
 seemed, two opinions of the case, two opinions of the 
 chances. Ground had been gained, if only standing- 
 ground, by the enemy, through the mere exercise, on 
 Sir Randolph's part, of the virtues of tolerance and 
 professional good feeling. "Gad, sir," Sir Randolph 
 said to the Duke as together they deplored the state 
 
 122
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 of things which had come about, "I sometimes feel 
 it's possible to be too much of a gentleman in my 
 trade." That was the general feeling in the house- 
 hold, from the Duke downward. Sir Randolph's 
 gentlemanly behavior, his determination that the 
 lightest wish of the Prince should be respected, so 
 long as there could be no two opinions about the 
 case, had been taken advantage of. The Pittsburgh 
 doctor had been given a status that is how they put 
 it in the A.D.C.s' room, simply through Perry's 
 decency, and now he was rewarding that decency 
 by worming himself into the Prince's confidence, buck- 
 ing him up to defy regulations, and starting some 
 damn new hare about the case to upset the conclusions 
 of the first specialist in England. On the face of 
 it, Captain Grinling said to Captain Montmorency 
 Jones, was it likely Atkinson knew or was it likely 
 Perry knew? Which would he, Grinling, or he, 
 Jones, elect to follow if either Grinling or Jones were 
 afflicted with rotten bellows? The A.D.C.s' room 
 stood solidly for eminence and authority. A shade 
 fell upon it when Winter, to whom it said Sir, re- 
 ported that Major Minchin, of the Royal Medical 
 Army Corps, the viceregal doctor, who was naturally 
 given intimate views, was "keeping an open mind." 
 "Wobbling," they put it darkly, and it was hinted 
 that poor Major Minchin's professional indecision 
 was a form of watching the cat. Young men are so 
 
 123
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 severe. But even the Duke, that best of good fel- 
 lows, in an access of irritated anxiety, snubbed his 
 medical man rather severely. "All I can say, Min- 
 chin," he delivered, "is that we don't pay you to 
 keep an open mind." Which so frightened Minchin 
 that he fluttered more than ever, first to the enteric 
 fever complication theory of Dr. Atkinson, and then 
 back to the general tubercular condition which was 
 so positively affirmed by Sir Randolph Perry. 
 
 There were symptoms on both sides, tubercle mi- 
 crobes to justify any view, and this against Atkin- 
 son's, that his feature had long been known for its 
 fallibility. 
 
 "It's the commonest mistake in the history of the 
 disease," declared Sir Randolph, and quoted case 
 after case in which he had been privileged to expose 
 it. The unhappy thing was the proportion of them 
 in which death had supervened at different periods 
 after the exposure. Certainly the balance of hope 
 was with Atkinson. That in its way was the most 
 irritating thing of all, it being obscurely felt that the 
 balance of hope ought to be with the highest au- 
 thority. 
 
 The acute difficulty was the immediate divergence 
 in the recommendations of the two doctors. They 
 agreed only upon the prime importance of getting 
 the Prince at the earliest feasible moment out of the 
 midsummer conditions of Ottawa. Sir Randolph, to 
 
 124
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 put it briefly, was for the immediate voyage to Eng- 
 land, and thereafter, if and as soon as the patient 
 could bear it, a course of treatment based on every- 
 thing that was established in what was known as the 
 Neuheimer system. What was absolutely estab- 
 lished, Sir Randolph drew the line rigidly at that. 
 He would be a party to no false hopes based on 
 theories, however brilliant, as yet imperfectly demon- 
 strated. In Sir Randolph's opinion, expressed pri- 
 vately to the Duke, the person of a member of the 
 royal house of England did not offer a suitable sub- 
 ject for empiricism. Nor would Sir Randolph with- 
 hold any part of his opinion from the Duke. Prince 
 Alfred's life might be prolonged, under an adapta- 
 tion of the Neuheimer system, for several years. It 
 was the most they were entitled to hope. 
 
 Dr. Atkinson, on the other hand, diagnosing two 
 diseases in the Prince, proposed to cure first one and 
 then the other. Not by his own hand. 
 
 "We can get the enteric out of him in a week now," 
 he told the Governor-General. "And then I want 
 you to hand him over to Morrow at Sumach. Mor- 
 row's an advance picket he's got hold of things. 
 You must have heard of him, sir. The Morrow Com- 
 mittees. He's the fellow who has practically cleaned 
 consumption out of the country towns of the state of 
 New York. He was phthisic himself once, like most 
 of the men who have done anything with us. We 
 
 125
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 seem to want the personal stimulus. Tried every- 
 thing on himself; but his own case was measles to 
 some of those he's wound up and started going again 
 since. I don't say it's Prince Alfred's only chance, 
 but, taking everything together, his predispositions 
 of all sorts I may say that the Prince has spoken 
 very freely to me I would not be afraid to publish 
 my belief that his chances are ten to one with Mor- 
 row, and one to ten back there in England getting 
 Neuheimer inoculations." 
 
 "But you won't publish it," said the Duke anx- 
 iously. 
 
 "Why, no," Dr. Atkinson replied. "I consider 
 I've done my duty when I've given my best advice to 
 the patient." 
 
 "I haven't spoken to Alfred yet," said the 
 Duke. "I know I can depend upon the boy to do 
 what is thought best for him. You mentioned his 
 predispositions. Now exactly what do you mean by 
 that?" 
 
 "Well, if he goes back to England, one of his 
 predispositions to tell you candidly, Highness his 
 leading predisposition is to die. He sees himself ly- 
 ing in state is there a place you call Westminster 
 Hall? Well, there. Stretched out in bed with his 
 eyes shut he sees himself lying in state, and taking 
 a trip on a gun-carriage afterwards. He's got it all 
 figured out." 
 
 126
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Morbid," said the Duke. 
 
 "Maybe," said the doctor. "His mother, he tells 
 me, died of tuberculosis." 
 
 "Her late Majesty," the Duke returned heavily, 
 "did at the end suffer from something of the kind. 
 But there were complications." The reply suggested 
 that her late Majesty had been given a choice. 
 
 "Suppose we consented to the Sumach idea I ad- 
 mit the virtues of the Adirondack air would it be 
 possible to arrange to place Perry in charge?" 
 
 "Not excuse me if I put it brusquely not on 
 your life, sir. Morrow would never consent. How 
 could he?" 
 
 "It would look better in England," said the Duke. 
 
 "I am afraid it would serve no earthly purpose. 
 The nurses should go, Catkin, and Colonel Vande- 
 leur by all means. Nobody else," said Dr. Atkin- 
 son. 
 
 "You yourself ?" 
 
 "I've got a lot of people to attend to in Pittsburgh, 
 Duke, and some of them are pretty sick. It's a place 
 with a wonderful equality of opportunity for self- 
 indulgence." 
 
 "Then you wouldn't be " 
 
 "On hand? Oh, yes, if occasion arose. But it 
 wouldn't." 
 
 "What does my nephew say to that?" 
 
 "I think His Royal Highness understands the situ- 
 
 127
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 ation," said Dr. Atkinson. "He believes me when 
 I tell him nothing in the world would justify me in 
 taking his case so long as Morrow is alive." 
 
 The Duke walked out of the room. 
 
 "Then," said Major Winter, returning to the 
 charge with Atkinson the next afternoon, "we should 
 be obliged to ship Perry, after ten days, to counter- 
 mand the C.P.R.'s special cabin arrangements 
 they've gone to no end of trouble, knocking four into 
 one and practically throw overboard the most dis- 
 tinguished opinion of the British school of medicine. 
 Perry ain't alone, you must remember. Impossible, 
 man. You must see for yourself it's impossible." 
 
 "Won't Perry help you?" 
 
 "Perry!" 
 
 "Why, yes. Perry ought to recommend it. Get 
 him to go over and see Morrow, anyhow. I'll have 
 the enteric proved on him in three days, and though 
 that doesn't affect his views about the phthisis, he'll 
 be so sick at having to acknowledge it that he might 
 very well decide to lead the way out of all com- 
 plications by recommending the Morrow treatment. 
 If he were convinced, of course. And I imagine, if 
 the Duke asked him to go and see Morrow with 
 an open mind, Morrow could convince him." 
 
 "What do you mean by complications?" 
 
 "Well, I've got to tell you I think the patient 
 means to place himself under Morrow." 
 
 128
 
 "And you mean to help him," said Winter. 
 
 "I have helped him," Dr. Atkinson replied. "I 
 don't suppose it will be necessary to have recourse to 
 the habeas corpus act," he laughed. 
 
 In three days, or, to be precise, on the morning of 
 the fourth, Prince Alfred's condition had changed 
 sufficiently to justify Dr. Atkinson's diagnosis of 
 enteric. By that time also the Governor-General 
 had confided the matter unofficially to the Canadian 
 Prime Minister, an astute and independent person, 
 and, as the Duke often said both publicly and pri- 
 vately, a man he was proud to claim his very good 
 friend. It happened that Sir Hector Cameron could 
 testify warmly to the Morrow treatment, which had 
 re-established a brother of Lady Cameron when he 
 was so "advanced" as to be practically at death's 
 door. Nor did Sir Hector see how "in this year of 
 grace" the Prince's wishes could be overridden in the 
 matter. "Why shouldn't he have the chance he 
 wants?" asked Sir Hector. 
 
 "I understand the King's feeling," the Duke told 
 him. "The Family are and have always been pecu- 
 liarly attached to one another. If his brother is go- 
 ing to die, the King wants him to die at home. 
 Naturally." 
 
 "But if he goes to Sumach, he won't," said Sir 
 Hector, 
 
 "Sir Randolph Perry assures us that it will only 
 
 129
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 take place sooner," said the Duke. "I may tell you, 
 Cameron, that the worry and strain of this distress- 
 ing matter is beginning to tell upon my capacity to 
 discharge public business. It is beginning to affect 
 the public interest. We can't have that. It must be 
 settled somehow. I will confess to you that Alfred 
 has already asked for an official interview with 
 me and so far I've shirked it. But it's got to 
 be faced some time. Vandeleur is about as much 
 use " 
 
 "As a sick headache," said the Prime Minister 
 sympathetically, and fell back upon his private re- 
 sources, which were many. 
 
 "Look here, sir," he said presently. (It was an 
 incorrigible form of address, one of the things for 
 which the Duke declared he liked Sir Hector.) 
 "What you want in this business, and perhaps what 
 His Majesty would like, too, is to transfer the re- 
 sponsibility. Well, give me permission to make it a 
 Cabinet matter. Let us consider the question on 
 international grounds, and submit our views to you. 
 If they coincide with your own, your position will be 
 strengthened with the King. If they don't, no harm 
 will be done." 
 
 The Duke considered. 
 
 "What is your own idea of the political aspect of 
 sending the Prince to this chap in the Adirondacks?" 
 he asked. 
 
 130
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Sir Hector threw back his head and inserted his 
 thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat. 
 
 "I think, in the present soreness over our action 
 in the North Pacific it would be quite a useful little 
 move," he said. 
 
 "Other things being equal, that is a consideration 
 that is bound, of course, to affect them at home," 
 mused the Duke. "You meet to-morrow morning, 
 don't you ? Come over to luncheon and bring Dela- 
 croix." 
 
 Delacroix was the Minister of Marine and 
 Fisheries. 
 
 It was always carefully kept from Prince Alfred 
 that the decision finally arrived at was effected by 
 anything but his own desire. The Duke made a 
 point of that. He knew how much the boy would 
 dislike the idea that political considerations, however 
 important, had practically influenced it. When he 
 said this to his trusty friend, Sir Hector Cameron, 
 that good fellow made a respectful and suitable re- 
 sponse. But what the head of the Canadian democ- 
 racy murmured in his heart was, "It's a lie to say 
 they did." 
 
 Before the week was out, Sir Randolph Perry had 
 gone to see Dr. Morrow at Sumach, with an open 
 mind. He sent his report by telegram, and it was 
 so favorable to the Morrow system as to leave the 
 Duke, as he said, no alternative. A communique
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 was issued which stated that upon the advice of Sir 
 Randolph Perry, given after thorough personal ex- 
 amination of the treatment of phthisis initiated and 
 carried on by Dr. James Morrow, at Sumach, in the 
 state of New York, it had been decided to place His 
 Royal Highness Prince Alfred, for some months in 
 'Dr. Morrow's care. His Royal Highness, attended 
 by Sir Randolph Perry, and his own suite, would 
 proceed to Sumach as soon as his strength permitted 
 and suitable arrangements could be made. Sir Ran- 
 dolph Perry would then leave for England. The 
 communique did not include the name of Dr. Henry 
 P. Atkinson, but a local paper mentioned that he 
 left Ottawa the day before the Prince did, with the 
 intention of getting five days' fishing up the Saguenay 
 before returning to Pittsburgh.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 WELL done!" said Henry Lanchester with- 
 out looking up from his paper. He and 
 Hilary were in the living-room at Old 
 Loon Point. Hilary sat in the window-seat doing 
 the flowers, and a stout-armed Bertha was clearing 
 away the breakfast things. 
 
 "What?" asked Hilary absently. 
 
 "They have handed the Prince over to Morrow. 
 The London man brings him, and leaves him. That 
 must have taken some doing. I wonder who engi- 
 neered it?" 
 
 "Perhaps," said Hilary, "he engineered it him- 
 self." 
 
 "Not so easy." The ex-President's eye traveled 
 down the column. "Well I'm uncommonly glad 
 of this. Uncommonly glad. Old Morrow's cap 
 doesn't need feathers; still, it's satisfactory. But" 
 he glanced at the date, "this is yesterday's paper. 
 Did you see it, Hil?" 
 
 "Yes," said Hilary, and put in another plume of 
 goldenrod. "If you will go off for three days at a 
 
 133
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 time after black bass, Dad, how can you expect to 
 keep in touch with with public affairs?" 
 
 "I expect to be told. Left Ottawa at nine to-day 
 yesterday. C. P. R. to Montreal, and the New 
 York Central gave him a special to Moose Lick. 
 Spends the night there and drives to Sumach this 
 morning. 'Accompanied by his equerry, Colonel 
 Adrian Vandeleur, Sir Randolph Perry, the well- 
 known London specialist, two trained nurses and 
 valet.' Morrow will soon bundle those good ladies 
 off. 'Great interest in England ' no doubt. 'And 
 some criticism,' naturally. But they'll get over that." 
 Mr. Lanchester opened another newspaper. "Let 
 us see how he stood the journey." 
 
 "Very well," said Hilary. "What I must have is 
 some wild asters." 
 
 "Apparently very well. Hullo what's this? 
 'Dr. Morrow's personal appeal.' Excellent idea to 
 write himself. 'All that can be published to meet 
 the natural interest of the country in the welfare of 
 its guest will be given to the press through recog- 
 nized channels ' and he practically invites the pub- 
 lic to co-operate with him in making the treatment a 
 success by 'assisting to maintain the conditions of abso- 
 lute privacy and peace which are essential to it.' He's 
 a wily beggar, Morrow. You see, he doesn't say 
 keep off; he says keep the other fellows off. Wise 
 man. Why come along! He's bringing the 
 
 134
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Prince up to that new perch of his on Colter's Island 
 they'll be within a dozen miles' drive of us." 
 
 "I wish," said Hilary with detachment, "that the 
 doctor had thought of appealing to the public to 
 keep away from you" 
 
 "We were a bit worried, weren't we? But we 
 were at home, and had to put up with family ways. 
 This young man is company. Well, Morrow will 
 let us know, I suppose, if there is anything we can 
 do." 
 
 "He has let us know. He has appealed to us 
 through the papers to maintain conditions of abso- 
 lute privacy and peace for his patient. I think we 
 should be the first to respect that request, Dad." 
 
 "We mustn't seem unfriendly. I'll write to 
 Morrow." 
 
 "I wouldn't. The doctor will understand. He 
 would write to you in a second, if there should be 
 anything we you could do. He knows that we are 
 going away for a fortnight anyway I saw him at 
 Paul Smith's last Friday, and told him so." 
 
 Henry Lanchester turned serious eyeglasses upon 
 his daughter. 
 
 "But dash it, Hil, let us be moderate in our self- 
 restraint. Morrow will expect a word of some sort. 
 He patched me up, you know, when I was a public 
 person in our modest American sense of the word. 
 Why shouldn't I cheer him on?" 
 
 135
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Do do cheer him on. But wait till we get to 
 the Phippses, and send him a wire from Oyster Bay. 
 Much better, Daddy." 
 
 "Remind me of it, then," he said, and Hilary 
 promised that she would. 
 
 It was astonishing, the effect of Dr. Morrow's 
 personal appeal. The country was proud of Dr. 
 Morrow, and with cause. He had taken a line, in 
 his treatment of phthisis, so based on the American 
 temperament, so characterized by American meth- 
 ods and habits of thought, as to place his notable 
 victories among the laurels of his country. His long, 
 lean person was the constant victim of the illustrated 
 papers; everybody knew something about his daily 
 life a'nd beliefs; he was an American institution. 
 That the case of Prince Alfred should have been 
 wrested from the skill of Europe to be placed in the 
 hands of Dr Morrow, refreshed his country with 
 that wine of competition which was still her favorite 
 drink. The American public, breathlessly desiring 
 the cure of the Prince, accepted Dr. Morrow's in- 
 structions. "It is now up to us," announced a New 
 York paper after three illustrated columns describ- 
 ing the preparations on Colter's Island, "to forget 
 that he is there. The fellow who would pry upon 
 this young Prince, gamely struggling for his life with 
 the help and protection of our country," it was said, 
 "deserves to be shot at sight." Colter's Island was 
 
 136
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 marked out of bounds for the camping parties of 
 the year, and people getting off the train at Moose 
 Lick, the nearest station, glanced at one another a 
 little searchingly, to be quite sure that they harbored 
 no reporters. 
 
 So Alfred sank, with every tenderness, into the 
 solitude, high and sweet and strange, of the Adiron- 
 dack mountains, and the care of an odd-looking fel- 
 low with bright eyes and a cadaverous face, who 
 put a hand on his shoulder and told him he was going 
 to get better. He arrived dropping with sleep, and 
 he spent the first twenty-four hours in his clothes, 
 wrapped up in furs in a hammock on a veranda. 
 About him a million fir-fingers pricked in a wilder- 
 ness dotted with quiet lakes. Through a fine rain 
 a great mountain loomed and smiled. There was a 
 happy balm abroad, a still delight in living. Drow- 
 sily Alfred gave his spirit to the clear, sweet, sane 
 habitation of these new airs. After Catkin had taken 
 off his boots, he closed his eyes upon the faithful 
 Catkin and would not be aware of him. He took 
 admonition from a kind, wise face, and food from 
 a kind, wise hand; in the intervals the mountain, too, 
 seemed to speak kindly and wisely. When he defi- 
 nitely woke and Dr. Morrow looked into his sunken 
 eyes, the physician of many saw there a little star 
 that he knew. 
 
 Prince Alfred went first into the doctor's cottage for 
 
 137
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 observation. He began to gain noticeably in flesh 
 almost from the day he arrived, as was natural after 
 the fever, and Dr. Morrow attached even more 
 weight to the daily ceremony of the scales than they 
 showed. He let them tell their flattering tale, add- 
 ing nothing to it; and perhaps because this was new 
 in his experience Alfred counted the figures with 
 more and more interest. It appeared to be some- 
 thing he was doing for himself. From the beginning 
 Morrow found him docile, grateful, touchingly at- 
 tentive to orders, but lacking in something that the 
 doctor presently diagnosed as outlook. 
 
 "I want hope I can't even find expectation," he 
 wrote to Atkinson in Pittsburgh. "Every day is a 
 page which he hardly thinks it worth while to turn. 
 He's suffering badly from predigested life, the diet 
 of princes, I suppose. I should like to drown Van- 
 deleur." 
 
 Dr. Morrow could not drown Vandeleur, but 
 within a week he had made away with the nurses. 
 They were not necessary to his system. It must have 
 been difficult to tell Mrs. Gold that there was a sys- 
 tem to which she was unnecessary; but Dr. Morrow 
 did it. Catkin struggled gamely, and Alfred him- 
 self even put in a word for old Cat ; but he went in 
 the same ship. 
 
 "Never mind, Catto," said his master. "I know 
 it's awful for a chap with your tummy, going back 
 
 138
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 and forth like this, but you shall have something to 
 pin on your coat for it I'll see to it myself. When 
 I'm dead, you know." 
 
 "Oh, sir," the faithful Catkin had replied. 
 "Don't talk about me. And, sir, if you wouldn't 
 speak of dyin' when I'm a shavin' of you I as 
 nearly as possible cut you, sir." 
 
 Bag and baggage they all went, weeping discreet 
 tears. Poor Catkin's sniff Dr. Morrow pardoned, 
 but Mrs. Gold's handkerchief was a red flag to him. 
 
 "It isn't because he's their dear patient; it's be- 
 cause he's their darling Prince," he snorted. "What 
 an atmosphere for a human being to get well in ! 
 Mephitic ! Off they go." 
 
 There was no way of getting rid of Vandeleur, 
 but after a day or two of observation Dr. Morrow 
 decided that from his point of view the Colonel was 
 innocuous. "He isn't soaked in it like the others," 
 said the doctor. "Besides, in a week he'll be too busy 
 being sorry for himself in this place to matter one way 
 or the other." Vandy wasn't soaked in the British 
 tradition; in fact it hadn't more than nicely dyed him, 
 and in the climate of the state of New York it began 
 quite perceptibly to fade the equerry did, the guards- 
 man and the C.B. Dr. Morrow's bright eye noted 
 the process with interest; and he arranged longer and 
 longer fishing excursions for Colonel Vandeleur, who 
 soon betrayed a skill in catching trout and pike that 
 
 139
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 washed it out in moments of enthusiasm altogether. 
 Between Vandy relapsing and Vandy bored, the en- 
 tourage, or Court Vandy quickly declined into little 
 more than a fourth hand at bridge, when Dr. Mor- 
 row's young partner came over from Sumach an 
 event which happened, in poor Vandy's opinion, re- 
 grettably seldom. The Princess Georgina's choice of 
 an equerry was more and more justified, though not 
 perhaps altogether from her point of view. 
 
 His place was taken, as far as Dr. Morrow could 
 arrange it, by Abe and Riley. Abe and Riley were 
 no body-guardsmen to Prince Alfred, but they 
 showed him round. It was Abe and Riley who built 
 the open camp of pine logs, where he presently went 
 to live, built it under his eye as he lay in the ham- 
 mock on the veranda. Abe it was who first an- 
 nounced that he was out of the hammock and "inter- 
 ferin' "; Riley who reported him "busy as a switch 
 engine" bringing the spruce boughs for the roof and 
 spreading the balsam for the bed. Abe and Riley, 
 whose wooden shack smoked round the point, were 
 the whole entourage, if we add Abe's mother, who 
 had only one tooth and hung out the clothes. She, 
 poor dear, ought to be added, for she was the only 
 one who showed any acquaintance with the part, 
 bowing daily from the hips as she always did, with 
 a hand on each of them, and a "Good morning, Your 
 Majesty." Far from such sophistications were Abe 
 
 140
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 and Riley, though kind and good in the manner that 
 goes with an open shirt and a hairy breast inside it. 
 Unnaturally silent at first, commiseration gave them 
 tongue, and it was soon touched with affection. His 
 biddableness, his ordinary trustful air of waiting to 
 be told, made him seem to them more youthful than 
 he was. "Not that a-way, sonny don't y' remem- 
 ber I showed ye different afore," sounded earnestly 
 across the clearing to the doctor on the veranda, who 
 smiled into his newspaper and made no sign. 
 
 Dr. Morrow had been obliged to grope a little 
 longer than he liked but at last he had got the re- 
 action he wanted; he was entitled to smile. The 
 Prince was pounds heavier, slept like a baby, fished 
 with Abe and Riley, seemed quite content. And now 
 there were undoubted signs that the tissue was be- 
 ginning to respond. Dr. Morrow was entitled to his 
 smile. Nevertheless he frowned over it, sending out 
 colorless advices and making reports to Vandeleur 
 which distinctly lagged behind the achievement. 
 
 "It's going to be all right for now," he grumbled 
 to his assistant, "but five years hence we shall have 
 him back. He wants more than anybody can give 
 him, something to counteract the damned alkaloid of 
 his life and training, that neutralizes the very vital 
 spring in him." 
 
 Abe and Riley were not enough, were surely not 
 enough. The wilderness was not enough. 
 
 141
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SO far it had been the Adirondack guide-boat 
 for expeditions, light and quick and sure, and 
 Abe or Riley, or both, had accompanied to row 
 and portage, and Alfred had mainly fished. One 
 evening the buckboard went to Moose Lick and 
 came back with a canoe. Abe slid it into the water 
 when all the light of the sky seemed to be moored 
 there, and Prince Alfred and Dr. Morrow, looking 
 on, stood already in the brightness of the evening 
 bonfire. 
 
 "To-morrow morning," said the doctor, as it was 
 made fast, "Abe shall take you out in that and show 
 you how to manage it. For the exploration of 
 these water highways of ours there is nothing like 
 it." 
 
 "Delightful," said Prince Alfred. "Quite safe to 
 leave the paddles out?" 
 
 "Quite," said the doctor. "The last Mohawk left 
 these parts some time ago, Prince." 
 
 "Ah," said Alfred. "Now you're ragging. I 
 think it's my bedtime. Good night, doctor." 
 
 142
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Next morning, when Abe came round the point to 
 do the chores, which was early, the canoe had van- 
 ished. Abe was not disturbed, but made his way, 
 full of morning leisure, to the camp where Prince 
 Alfred's bed was also empty. 
 
 "Doctor's took him out," said Abe, still unper- 
 turbed, and went about his work. Presently Dr. 
 Morrow appeared, looking for his patient, who wa's 
 seldom late for breakfast ; and then it was plain that 
 the Prince and the canoe had gone together. The 
 little group on the shore looked at one another rather 
 blankly. 
 
 "He didn't say he knew anything about a canoe," 
 said the doctor to Vandeleur. "Does he?" 
 
 "He was fond of the river at Oxford," Vandy 
 said, with an alarmed eye on the empty reaches. 
 
 "So long as he keeps off them rapids round by the 
 Neck," remarked Riley. 
 
 "He may not a-gone that way at all," Abe con- 
 tributed; "but he don't figure on bein' back for break- 
 fast. He's took a hunk of boiled bacon an' about 
 half a pan o' cornbread I baked last night. He's 
 fixed up till dinner, anyhow." 
 
 Colonel Vandy had got out of his coat. "I'll take 
 the skiff," he said. "You two men " 
 
 "I don't think, Vandeleur, that he would take the 
 canoe out unless he knew how to manage it," said 
 Dr. Morrow. "We'll give him an hour or so. I 
 
 143
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 am very well pleased that he has gone, and I par- 
 ticularly don't want to chase him." 
 
 But Vandy was in the skiff and a boat length 
 out. 
 
 "That's all right, doctor, from your point of view, 
 but he had no business, confound him, to go off like 
 this without telling me" he called out, "and when 
 I find him I'll tell him so." 
 
 "Then I hope you don't find him," said Dr. Mor- 
 row to himself, and Vandy didn't. He came very 
 near it though, at a point about three miles up Wa- 
 sitah inlet, where the canoe was drawn in behind a 
 thicket of tamarack and raspberry bushes; and on 
 a grassy hump beside it Alfred sat, satisfying the 
 most gorgeous hunger of his life on fat bacon and 
 corn-pone. Through the leaves he saw his equerry 
 laboring at the oar, and though he must have known 
 with what purpose, he made no sign. Instead, he 
 kept so still that a chipmunk came after crumbs. It 
 was his first sweet moment of freedom; Vandy 
 seemed to coast round it, ineffective and absurd. 
 "Handles an oar very well," Alfred reflected, with a 
 smile of irony and detachment, as the skiff shot on- 
 ward. "This is not nice of me," he murmured, "not 
 at all nice," and lighted a^ cigarette, which was 
 against orders. He smoked another before he began 
 to paddle peacefully back, and Dr. Morrow smelled 
 them on him when he turned up to apologize for his 
 
 144
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 absence at breakfast, having passed Abe and Riley, 
 apparently fishing, half way. 
 
 "So it wasn't safe," laughed the doctor, "to leave 
 the paddles out. Well, this gives you the key of the 
 woods, Prince." 
 
 Vandy took it less philosophically, and held him- 
 self remote for some hours after he had changed. 
 
 "Stuffy," commented Prince Alfred kindly. "It 
 did him a lot of good, though. Vandy's getting 
 much too fat." 
 
 Vandy was stuffy quite often as the days went on, 
 and it became plain that the less Alfred saw of his 
 equerry, the better Dr. Morrow was pleased. The 
 doctor seemed indifferent as to how his patient 
 amused himself, asserted no control, displayed no 
 tact, suggested nothing, praised not at all. A pleas- 
 ant, rather critical interest in as much of his day's 
 doings as he chose to tell was all that Alfred had to 
 meet from this physician; he told more and more. 
 The canoe became his favorite companion; hours he 
 spent in it, happy and alone. Vandy, as became a 
 pleasant fellow, got over his stuffiness, caught record 
 trout, and discovered himself absorbed in the New 
 York Sunday papers. 
 
 Nothing did Prince Alfred ever see in his explor- 
 ings, except now and then some little shy animal that 
 was new to him, and the reflection under the bows 
 of his canoe of a gaunt young man in an American 
 
 145
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 sweater that was familiar, until one afternoon, at a 
 clearing by the water's edge, he came upon a woods- 
 man whom he obliged with a match. 
 
 They were both sociable. "Come fur?" asked 
 the man, lighting his pipe. 
 
 "Moose Lick," said Alfred, "is my post-office. 
 It's a pretty place." 
 
 "I've seen homelier. That's a good ways, too. 
 Best come ashore a bit, hadn't ye ? Y'look all tuck- 
 ered out." 
 
 Alfred came ashore, and learned that the ranger 
 was there to blaze out a piece of land for a party 
 from Utica. 
 
 "What is he going to do with it?" 
 
 "Well, he reckons to put up a hotel here nex' sum- 
 mer. Y'see, Moose Lick hev come into sech promi- 
 nence lately, on account of the Prince an' all, that 
 this party thinks it'll be a payin' proposition. Now 
 they've got a branch line through to Delville, he con- 
 siders it won't be the same trouble to get truck here 
 he kin strike into the road to Colter's about a mile 
 from this, an' get his connection that way. Person- 
 ally I think it's a fool place for a hotel, but then 
 I'm not payin' for it." 
 
 "So do I," Alfred told him. 
 
 "Ever seen the Prince?" 
 
 "I have yes. He's nearly always about where 
 I am," he added dejectedly. 
 
 146
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "You don't say! I thought they was keepin' the 
 public off. I'd admire to see him myself." 
 
 "No, you wouldn't," said Alfred. "What tobacco 
 is that you're smoking?" 
 
 "Ladybird. Now, won't you light up? I've got 
 a second pipe somewhere in my clothes." He 
 searched them thoroughly and produced it. Alfred 
 did not hesitate, but packed the bowl full from the 
 horny hand extended. 
 
 "That's right. 'Be free and easy or be lonesome' 
 that's what we say in the mountains. My name's 
 Kinehan." 
 
 "Mine is Wettin," said Alfred, direct descendant 
 of Albert the Good, though it was often forgotten. 
 
 "From New York, I dessay?" 
 
 "I came over from Canada." 
 
 "That so? Well, we get a right smart o' Cana- 
 dians round here, summer time. What " 
 
 "This the end of the lake?" asked Alfred. 
 
 "Well, it is and it isn't. There's half a mile o' 
 ma'sh an' muskeg afore ye get to Old Loon, but it's 
 less land than water." 
 
 "Any portage ?" 
 
 "Yes, there is one. It ain't laid down on any map, 
 but I been acrost often. Like me to show ye?" 
 
 Alfred hesitated and looked at the canoe. "I 
 would awfully," he said, "but " 
 
 "Too heavy for ye, is she?" 
 
 147
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Not ordinarily, but I haven't been well." 
 
 "I'll carry for you. Just as soon as not. It isn't 
 everybody knows this portage you oughtn't to miss 
 learnin' it," his friend assured him, and got the canoe 
 into place upon his head. 
 
 The portage was less than half a mile. Old Loon 
 Lake sent a sweet and secret arm up to meet it. 
 There Kinehan showed him the fresh prints of deer. 
 
 "That shows it ain't fashionable," he said, and 
 put the canoe into the water. "Now shall I paddle 
 you out into the open, and show you the prettiest 
 stretch of water in the mountains?" 
 
 "Would you mind," said Alfred, "if I went by 
 myself? I " 
 
 "Not a mite not a mite. Some feels that way, I 
 know. 'Twon't take ye more than twenty minutes 
 or so. I'll have a pipe." 
 
 "Half an hour. Give me half an hour, will you 
 if it really isn't inconveniencing you?" said Alfred, 
 pushing out. "It looks ripping, and I'm awfully 
 obliged," and Kinehan agreed. 
 
 Prince Alfred, paddling through the green shad- 
 ows toward the line of green light, competed with 
 pioneers and all hardy men. The joy of discovery 
 was at his heart; he paddled ever so gently, kneel- 
 ing in the bows and pushing aside, without a sound, 
 the dead leaves that crowded round his paddle. He 
 felt wonderfully happy, and said to himself, as the 
 
 148
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 canoe stole fast to the gleam of the open, "There 
 can't be anything better than this." Where the arm 
 joined the lake the trees came over; it was low like 
 a door; the branches made an arch with a point, an 
 early English arch, designed long ago. And under 
 it, kneeling in his canoe, Prince Alfred suddenly ap- 
 peared with his paddle poised; and before he could 
 dip it again he had seen the girl in a boat half full of 
 water lilies a little way farther down the opposite 
 shore, whom he looked at curiously for an instant, 
 thinking her very like Hilary Lanchester. She, when 
 he came into the picture, had no doubt (because in 
 her dreams she had so often seen him there), but 
 immediately sent him a smile. At which he fell to 
 paddling with a stroke that was incredibly swift and 
 strong and sure.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 HALFWAY across he took off his cap and 
 waved it to give her to understand that it 
 was really he. Then as he brought himself 
 within a paddle length, "What in the name of won- 
 der," he demanded, "are you doing here?" 
 
 "Getting these," she told him, and lifted a lily. 
 It had very perfect beauty, but he did not see it; she 
 held it too near her face. 
 
 "But where have you come from?" he insisted, 
 looking round him for a palace or a grotto. 
 
 She pointed to a splash of white far down and 
 half hidden in the woods of the other side. "We 
 live there," she said. "Isn't it lucky to find lilies so 
 close! I want these for the table to-night one of 
 father's former secretaries is coming to dinner. Quite 
 accidentally and privately, of course, but " 
 
 Alfred looked at her as if he had barely heard. 
 
 "You are living here! Since when?" 
 
 "Since since July," she told him. 
 
 "And pray why didn't I know? Why wasn't I 
 told?" he required of her, all the prince.
 
 'HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "You must have heard," she protested, "that the 
 public were requested " 
 
 "The public! You Americans, you know," he ex- 
 plained with fervent seriousness, "you are extreme 
 very extreme." 
 
 "But perhaps you don't know very well what is 
 good for you," she told him primly. 
 
 "I do know very well what is good for me," 
 he said, and somehow must have expressed rather 
 more, for Hilary could not make herself believe later 
 that she had not blushed at that point. "Though I 
 don't believe I ever knew before," he added. 
 
 "Are you really better?" she asked, with her heart 
 and her eyes and her lips. "And do you like it here ?" 
 
 "Amazingly," he told her, and gave her a shy, 
 speculative glance. "Can you keep a secret?" 
 
 "I've kept lots of father's." 
 
 He considered. "I may tell you one presently. 
 Yes, I can make out your house quite well. Are you 
 a large party there?" 
 
 "Only father and me and one maid and Enoch," 
 he learned. 
 
 "Who is Enoch?" 
 
 "Our man." 
 
 "For doing the chores?" 
 
 "Yes," she smiled. "Nobody else at all, except 
 by accident sometimes, like the person to-night. 
 Father won't have people. He prefers to be just
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 us two. That is very remarkable, and I am very 
 proud of it." 
 
 "I don't think it remarkable," Alfred told her. 
 "If I had a daughter, I should like nothing better 
 than to do that. If she was pleasant. But I never 
 shall have one, pleasant or unpleasant," he astonish- 
 ingly confided. "Luckily I shan't be obliged to 
 marry." 
 
 She looked at him with immense interest. Was 
 this the secret? 
 
 "Luckily?" 
 
 "Oh, yes. I shall never be well enough, you know, 
 'for that. I've worried it all out, and it doesn't suit 
 me badly. Because anything of the sort would drag 
 me home, and I mean to have a shot " He looked 
 at her questioningly again 
 
 "Ah, do tell me." 
 
 He made up his mind, and trusted her. 
 
 "At staying over here." 
 
 "Oh, no!" she cried. "Impossible!" 
 
 "Would you mind," he asked her politely, "not 
 using that word? I am so tired of it. And how- 
 ever impossible it is, I mean to do it.'* 
 
 "How?" she demanded breathlessly. The lilies 
 were drooping in the bottom, of the boat. 
 
 "I shall never be well enough to do anything," 
 he brought out firmly, "but ranch in Colorado. That 
 doesn't matter so much as you might think, because 
 
 152
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 in England there is nothing for me to do. And I 
 should like ranching there." 
 
 "But " 
 
 "I've talked it over with Dr. Morrow " he 
 played his trump card "and he will recommend it. 
 They can't get round I mean that is very impor- 
 tant. I think we shall bring it off. But I don't know 
 why I should worry you about it. I say do come 
 and meet the doctor. He's delightful." 
 
 "I can't to-day," she said demurely, with her mind 
 whirling to Colorado. "Besides, we know him al- 
 ready. He's a darling. Father wouldn't be alive 
 now but for him." 
 
 "Really! Was he attached to your father?" 
 
 "Yes, I think so. I know father is attached to 
 him," she jested, and took up an oar. 
 
 "Oh, yes. I say when may Vandy and I paddle 
 over and see your father? I mean would it bore 
 him? He does see people sometimes, you said." 
 
 "I think he would like it immensely. Any time." 
 She took up the other oar. 
 
 "To-morrow, then?" 
 
 "He will be there to-morrow, in the afternoon. 
 Good-by, then, for now." 
 
 She was dipping and pulling; he could but put his 
 paddle in. 
 
 "Good-by. Would about five be convenient?" 
 
 "Perfectly." She was more than a boat length 
 
 153
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 away, and he still irresolute among the rushes. He 
 remembered Kinehan, and swung round and out. 
 Then he remembered something else. 
 
 "I say," he called after her. "Did you get the 
 button?" 
 
 It was far from fair; she was off her guard. But 
 he could not possibly guess why her hand went so 
 quickly to her neck, where a fine little chain of steel 
 held much too strongly for any betrayal. 
 
 "Oh, yes," she returned to him across the widen- 
 ing water. "Thank you very much." 
 
 That was all, and it sent him paddling back to 
 Kinehan with a slight feeling of dissatisfaction. 
 He would have liked to know, quite awfully, what 
 she had done with the button. He had often won- 
 dered, and decided that it would make at least a hat- 
 pin. 
 
 Kinehan was there, waiting, and Alfred made him 
 blaze the portage back. 
 
 "I'm tremendously obliged to you," he said, as 
 the last chip flew. "1 shall certainly come this way 
 again." He searched the pockets of his trousers and 
 collected what he could. 
 
 "All I've got, I'm afraid," he said, handing the 
 loose silver to the ranger, who waved it back. 
 
 "No," he said. "You keep your money. You 
 may be school-teachin', or you may be bank-clerkin' ; 
 but anyways, before ye get home from your holidays 
 
 154
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 you'll want it more than I do. I kin make my own 
 livin', thank ye all the same." 
 
 "Can you?" said Alfred. "In that case," he re- 
 flected rather than replied, "what you say may be 
 true," and he repocketed the coins. "But look here," 
 he said in sudden happy spirits, "you have done me 
 a service, you know. I must give you something." 
 He felt about himself; he looked about himself, but 
 there was nothing nothing but his wrist watch, the 
 gift of his Aunt Georgina. It was only a gun-metal 
 watch, but inconspicuously on the inner case the letter 
 A was picked out in tiny brilliants. He took it off 
 without a pang. 
 
 "I am sure this would be useful to you," he said, 
 "and I've got another at home." 
 
 It was years before the story got about, and no- 
 body ever learned exactly how valuable the service 
 was for which the Prince had given his watch to the 
 ranger.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 PRINCE ALFRED did not meet his equerry 
 until next morning at breakfast, when Colonel 
 Vandy came in with a telegram in his hand, 
 looking as if life after all had moments that were 
 worth living. 
 
 "I've had a wireless from the Taffy Mortimers," 
 he announced. "They arrive to-morrow morning by 
 the Morvania. They don't say 'Meet us,' but if I 
 could have a day or two off, sir " 
 
 "Rather, Vandy," said Prince Alfred. "I'm be- 
 ginning to walk alone quite nicely, aren't I, doctor? 
 When shall you start?" 
 
 "Most of the liners make the docks about ten in 
 the morning," Dr. Morrow observed. "You must 
 go to-day, of course. There's a good train at Moose 
 Lick at noon. Abe can drive you over if you like." 
 
 "Not Abe, please," said Alfred, "I shall want him 
 later. But Riley can go, doctor. All right, Vandy. 
 I say why not take a week? The Mortimers would 
 adore to have you escort them round, and I'll get 
 along somehow " 
 
 156
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Very good of you, I'm sure, but impossible, sir, 
 I'm afraid. It wouldn't be at all understood I 
 mean I shouldn't at all care about a week." 
 
 Vandy quailed under a reminding glance from Dr. 
 Morrow. 
 
 "But a couple of days if you really think I 
 might " 
 
 "Fly, Vandy, and do all you know for Mrs. 
 Taffy," Alfred told him, over his third cup of coffee. 
 "I make only one stipulation that you don't bring 
 her within a hundred miles of this. Personally, I 
 am making a call this afternoon, Vandy. On Mr. 
 ex-President Lanchester, who lives on the next lake. 
 But you needn't worry. It's quite informal, though 
 I'll take you another time if you're good." 
 
 "But in that case " bristled Vandy. 
 
 "Not at all, Colonel not at all. Abe shall port- 
 age me, and I'll do the rest myself," Alfred assured 
 him, and Vandy, who by now knew that when he 
 was addressed as Colonel, further discussion was apt 
 to be unfruitful, went off to pack. That was Satur- 
 day. Vandy would take Sunday. 
 
 Dr. Morrow had beamed on the adventure. "If 
 I had known you knew them, I would have got hold 
 of the Lanchesters before," he said. "They can't 
 do you anything but good. Talk to Lanchester about 
 your ranching scheme, Prince. He's the very man 
 to advise you." 
 
 157
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 As Alfred paddled up the north arm of Old Loon 
 Lake that afternoon at a quarter past four, looking 
 very like himself in boating flannels, he wondered 
 whether he would. The ranching scheme had taken 
 such possession of his imagination that he saw life 
 nowhere else. The innocent Abe had started it there 
 with tales of other patients; Dr. Morrow had caught 
 at it; it had been perfect food for the American 
 microbe now flourishing in his veins. Long hours 
 he had thought about it and worked it out, sitting 
 with his fishing-rod in the sweet primeval solitudes 
 that so invited him, hours in which the Princess 
 Georgina in England was preparing an excellent bar- 
 gain for him in a country house on the Berkshire 
 downs, and Sir Randolph Perry was expressing to 
 his intimates the belief that he would occupy it not 
 longer than three years at the most hopeful calcu- 
 lation. 
 
 All his life, while he was well, this Prince had 
 coveted the common lot; now in his weakness the 
 opportunity seemed to have come. 
 
 No, he would not return. He would take up land 
 out there and raise cattle. He would send for his 
 dog, and for Henry Hake who had charge of it. 
 Hake worked on a big stud farm in Norfolk; Hake 
 knew a lot. As to allowances, if there was any dif- 
 ficulty, he always understood he had something of 
 his own, and it wouldn't be long before he could 
 
 158
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 pay his way. If the worst came to the worst, there 
 was a railway company that helped you a bit in the 
 beginning with stock and so forth no, that was in 
 Canada ; but it must be the same on this side. This 
 was the country, not Canada, for his special require- 
 ments. In Canada they would worry him, on account 
 of his birth. They would be practically compelled to 
 worry him ; it wouldn't do. But in Colorado it would 
 be different. In Colorado he would be just a rancher 
 earning his living paying his way. His bosom 
 swelled. 
 
 Morrow was all for it, and now Morrow, he re- 
 flected as the dark water slid past, advised consult- 
 ing Lanchester. It was also true that Lanchester 
 was Hilary's father, and probably no end of a good 
 chap. On the other hand, he was, or had been, a 
 politician, a fellow, in Alfred's experience, whose 
 arguments were just as likely to be against you as 
 for you, and unanswerable in any case. He would 
 be careful, at all events, not to put himself in the 
 position of being obliged to accept Lanchester's 
 advice. 
 
 As he drew nearer he made out the ex-President 
 coming down through the clearing, a tall figure, even 
 more significant there in the woods than it would be 
 in the streets of cities. Lanchester grasped the canoe 
 and they beached it together. Then as Alfred 
 sprang out of it, they ceremoniously lifted their 
 
 159
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 straw hats to one another and shook hands, each 
 quite remembering, there in the pine-trimmed wilder- 
 ness, who and what he was. 
 
 "This is an immense pleasure, Your Highness." 
 
 It was the merest instant of mutual measurement ; 
 it faded on a glance into kindliness and good-fellow- 
 ship. 
 
 "Isn't it!" Alfred agreed, as they turned together 
 into the path. 
 
 "The marvel is your being able to do so much so 
 soon. We have reason to congratulate ourselves. 
 But Morrow is a great fellow." 
 
 "Not half such good reason as I," Alfred told 
 him, "and it's uncommonly kind of you to let me hop 
 over like this. My equerry," he added earnestly, 
 "I hope you don't mind but he more or less had to 
 go to New York to-day." 
 
 Mr. Lanchester's smile conveyed that he did not 
 'feel himself slighted. He went on talking about 
 Morrow as they walked to the house. There were 
 no flower-beds; it was no more than a lodge in the 
 wilderness, but it had a veranda, hospitable with 
 rugs and big wicker chairs. Alfred's eye searched 
 the veranda, but it was otherwise empty. They sat 
 down there, it was the pleasantest place, still talking 
 of Morrow; and after an interval, Alfred said that 
 he hoped Miss Lanchester was well. 
 
 "Quite well, thanks," her father told him, "and 
 
 1 60
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 at the moment, I imagine, in the kitchen boiling the 
 kettle. We, too, have lost our staff to-day. She 
 has gone to the circus at Moose Lick." 
 
 "Oh, but, couldn't I I mean, couldn't we " 
 Alfred paused, blushing furiously, and Mr. Lanches- 
 ter gravely helped him out. 
 
 "Be of any use? We might. Shall we go and 
 see?" 
 
 They went through the living-room toward the 
 kitchen, and it was odd that the heart of an English 
 prince should beat so high in an American pantry. 
 As they opened the door, Hilary, in a big blue apron, 
 was bending over the oven. 
 
 "Oh, Dad," she mourned, pushing the pan back 
 again, "I've been trying tea biscuits, and they're such 
 a bad success." 
 
 For just a funny perceptible instant the two comers 
 stood silent, with a half guilty sense of being some- 
 where, somehow, where it was not lawful or ex- 
 pedient for them to be, and then she flashed round at 
 them. 
 
 "Oh!" she cried out upon them. "You must be 
 very hungry." To invade her like that, she clearly 
 implied. "How do you do, Prince Alfred?" 
 
 "We are," he defended himself as they shook 
 hands. Hers was still dusted white with her baking; 
 he closed his fingers carefully on the trace that came 
 off. "Mr. Lanchester thought," he explained, "that 
 
 161
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 we might help. I hope the bread and butter isn't cut. 
 I don't wish to boast, but I'm rather a dab at cut- 
 ting bread and butter." 
 
 "Let us all cut bread and butter," moved Mr. 
 Lanchester, but Alfred protected the loaf. 
 
 "Believe me," he said earnestly, "you won't do it 
 as well as I. Couldn't you, sir, get out the jam?" 
 
 Mr. Lanchester met his daughter's eye and 
 laughed. "I'm afraid," he said, "there isn't any 
 jam, Prince. But have you nothing, Hil, of a jammy 
 disposition? Couldn't we run to some crab-apple 
 jelly?" He looked hopefully toward the dresser. 
 
 "The next to top shelf, on the right," Hilary com- 
 manded. As the jar appeared, "I made it," she told 
 Prince Alfred, dealing faithfully with the bread and 
 butter, and he looked at her, as that daughter of Eve 
 knew he would, with more admiration than ever. 
 
 They made the tea and found the tray and talked 
 with much naturalness and some little humor, and 
 were ready to carry all to the veranda, where they 
 were to have it for the view, when a sudden smell 
 of burning came and expanded in the kitchen air. 
 "My biscuits!" cried Hilary, but Alfred was at the 
 oven door with his handkerchief, and had the pan 
 out before her. The three considered the charred 
 remains. 
 
 "I put you off," declared Alfred contritely, "ask- 
 ing for jam." 
 
 162
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "They deserved to be forgotten," Hilary said. 
 "They were as flat as flat." 
 
 "We should have remembered, Prince," twinkled 
 Mr. Lanchester, "that you would be a dangerous 
 fellow in a kitchen. If you had any historical sense, 
 Hil, you would be scolding him severely." 
 
 The two young people looked at one another, and 
 as Hilary turned away her head, she said quite 
 divinely, "But he isn't refuging here from his ene- 
 mies, Dad." 
 
 "I have been told," said Alfred reflectively, "that 
 I have enemies in Europe, but I am sure I have none 
 in America. Shall I take the tray or the teapot, Miss 
 Lanchester?" 
 
 "Father will bring the tray, I will bring the tea- 
 pot, and will you please bring your beautiful bread 
 and butter?" Hilary told him, and in this procession 
 they went. 
 
 Perhaps when you can chaff a prince about his for- 
 bears there is no barrier of any great importance left 
 to friendly intercourse. There seemed, at all events, 
 to be none that day. No doubt Alfred's heart, 
 already gentle toward Hilary, opened the more 
 trustfully to Hilary's father, and Hilary's father was 
 a man to be trusted with any heart. It was not, cer- 
 tainly, only his own head that made him so important 
 to his country that she could never leave him alone 
 in his retirement; it was his generous share of every- 
 
 163
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 thing that makes a man no more valuable than dear. 
 "Lanchester's character so touches everything he 
 does," said his more friendly enemies, "that he's a 
 positive danger in a democratic country." Perhaps 
 that is why this English prince found such comfort 
 with him, and ate his bread and butter with such 
 serenity of soul. In half an hour Alfred had for- 
 gotten that he ever made stipulations with himself 
 about confiding in Henry Lanchester. In another, 
 his whole scheme, his dear plan for living and doing 
 in the freedom of a man's estate, was out and before 
 them on the veranda. Hilary, as he talked and told, 
 looked far out on the water, but Lanchester listened 
 closely. His smile gave Alfred all his good will and 
 pleasure, his eyes thought of other things. Things 
 to be acknowledged and conceded, counted and bal- 
 anced, but perceptible among them the American 
 conviction that there was nothing, after all, that 
 could not be done. 
 
 "Don't say it's impossible, sir," Alfred finished, 
 "because if you do I shall be horribly inclined to be- 
 lieve you." 
 
 "Let me think it over," said Lanchester, non- 
 committally, and Alfred, whose instinct for such 
 things was subtle, felt that he had taken the enter- 
 prise upon his shoulders.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 ON Monday Mr. Lanchester returned Prince 
 Alfred's visit, and stayed to luncheon. 
 Vandy was punctually back, and did every- 
 thing that a fellow deprived of his uniform could 
 do to make the occasion what it ought to be. It 
 was, no doubt, the Taffy Mortimers who had re- 
 called him to a sense of the capacity he was there 
 in, and the gravity of its duties, the Taffys with 
 their hushed inquiries and their religious eyes when 
 the talk was of the Prince. Colonel Vandy cer- 
 tainly returned from New York with the convic- 
 tion that it was time for them to pull themselves to- 
 gether at the camp; and the presence of the ex- 
 President at luncheon made a suitable opportunity. 
 That he succeeded to his own satisfaction it is not 
 possible with truth to say. Whether it was that 
 poor Vandy was pulling alone, or whether it was that 
 nobody noticed, or whether indeed Prince Alfred de- 
 liberately set himself to be rebellious, he couldn't 
 afterwards well decide; but the tide of conversation 
 that he tried so hard to improve upon in the inter- 
 
 165
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 ests of punctilio did before long seem to sweep past 
 him altogether. Not once did Prince Alfred refer 
 to him, turn to him or appeal to him; not once 
 did he feel himself the least shelter, or even the least 
 convenience, to that young man. They might have 
 been just lunching, four gentlemen together, four 
 gentlemen from anywhere, for all Vandy could do 
 with his deference to stamp his prince with a differ- 
 ence. So Vandy gave it up in the long run with 
 due discretion; but the little annoyance that he felt 
 must be mentioned because it was the beginning of 
 heavy misgivings in Vandy's mind. Listening to 
 the keen notes of Alfred's talk with America's most 
 famous specialist and most influential public man, 
 Vandy was alarmed to observe that the Prince was 
 getting something seriously like out of hand. It 
 was not so much what he said as the spirit with 
 which he said it. "He's fearfully bucked up," noted 
 the Colonel, "about something." And noted it with 
 gloom. 
 
 "What about this idea of his of settling in the 
 West?" asked Mr. Lanchester, in a private moment 
 with Dr. Morrow before he went back. 
 
 "Well, what about it?" Dr. Morrow was alert 
 for obstacles. 
 
 "I like it if he can bring it off." 
 
 "He will have a much better chance in this coun- 
 try," the doctor said. "It's quite what I myself should 
 
 166
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 have recommended as an after-cure for two years, 
 if I had dreamed it possible. But he thought of it 
 himself, and he keeps the idea right beside him, all 
 the time. It's worth pounds a week to him." 
 
 "They will agree to the after-cure in England, 
 I imagine, but they'll make him report himself first." 
 
 "No. I won't have any reporting. He can send 
 Vandeleur." 
 
 "For two years," reflected Lanchester. "After 
 that, it's your idea " 
 
 "That he'll be strong enough to take his own 
 line? Yes, it is. It's lucky he's an orphan. A king 
 father or a queen mother might give more than 
 the usual trouble, I suppose. A brother won't have 
 so much say." 
 
 "A brother on the throne," remarked Lanchester, 
 "may have quite an uncomfortable amount of say. 
 Not to speak of Ministers, a Privy Council, a House 
 of Lords and Commons, a question of allowances, 
 and an aunt." 
 
 "Oh, the aunt " 
 
 "When the aunt is the Princess Georgina, Duch- 
 ess of Altenburg, Morrow, it isn't a case of 'Oh, the 
 aunt.' I met the lady once, when she was younger, 
 and even then she impressed me as a weight-car- 
 rier. Her influence with the reactionary party over 
 there is considerable, and she regards the royal fam- 
 ily not merely as the apple of the British eye but as 
 
 167
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 the core of the British race. To domesticate a 
 nephew in a republic anyhow in this one would 
 seem to her an act of centrifugal destruction. I un- 
 derstand she's an affectionate aunt in her way, but 
 she'll look at it monarchically, and she'll stop at 
 nothing. You'll be up against the aunt, Morrow." 
 
 "She may look at it any way she likes. I look at 
 it humanly. What could she do, anyhow?" 
 
 "Use moral suasion, I suppose, coupled with prac- 
 tical measures. I don't know what they've got on 
 their statute book for the restraint of princes, but 
 she does. And whatever it is she'll put it in opera- 
 tion." 
 
 "Practical measures," retorted Dr. Morrow, 
 "means money. Look here, Lanchester, there's 
 nothing in that for the aunt." His eyes grew 
 brighter than ever. "Why, hang it all, if he wants 
 to carve out a career in Colorado steers for his 
 health, and there's any difficulty at home, the United 
 States of America will endow Alfred by public 
 subscription. Tell that to the aunt!" 
 
 The ex-President shook with laughter. "Quite 
 so," he said, wiping his eyes, "I can't imagine a more 
 popular object. Any newspaper would pay for the 
 job. They wouldn't let it run to an unfriendly 
 act, would they? 'The Expropriation of a British 
 Prince.' The Duchess would certainly see it like 
 that. All the same it would be a very good alterna- 
 
 168
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 tive to offer her. She wouldn't like it. But neither, 
 I'm afraid, would Prince Alfred." 
 
 "No," Dr. Morrow said regretfully. "I'm afraid 
 it could merely be used as a bluff. As a matter of 
 fact it would spoil the whole scheme for him. But I 
 want to see the thing done, Lanchester, and I'm 
 going to stand by. Here's a natural man growing 
 up in a royal prince and asking for a job. Leaving 
 out the question of his health, what is there for him 
 over there? Third horse in a tandem harnessed to 
 a motor car, that's about his situation; and looking 
 at him just as a human being in that fix, I feel in- 
 fernally sorry for him. Apart from that, he's my 
 patient and I'm curing him, and that's my pull. 
 And apart from that again, I'm personally in debt 
 to him, Lanchester." 
 
 His friend sent him a questioning look which the 
 doctor seemed at pains not to see. Then he swung 
 round. 
 
 "For making me so extraordinarily fond of him. 
 You know my shriveled life, Lanchester how it 
 hangs by my head. Since my brother I haven't 
 known I had a heart. And it's great to find it, old 
 man it's great." 
 
 Henry Lanchester, who largely lived by his, could 
 only nod. Then he smiled with some tenderness. 
 
 "What is it?" he demanded of the doctor. 
 "What's his black sorcery?" 
 
 169
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "How do I know," replied Dr. Morrow, "what 
 it is? There's no formula for it. I know that 
 I'm his doctor and I try to keep it at that, but 
 as a matter of fact I'm a pretty good imita- 
 tion of his slave. Then you're with us for Colo- 
 rado?" 
 
 "Absolutely. I should like it very much. I have 
 been in American politics and am now out of them, 
 but there's no time that I can think of when I wouldn't 
 have liked it very much." 
 
 "I might have known that," laughed Morrow. 
 "We're all acquainted with your one weak spot, 
 Lanchester. Before you go out with the boys again, 
 you old Pilgrim grandfather, come over to me, and 
 I'll trepan it." 
 
 "A fellow who's got to take to the woods from 
 June till October to keep alive isn't likely to see 
 much more of the boys," the ex-President told him, 
 holding out his hand. 
 
 "You disgraceful old quitter! You want to come 
 to the woods, that's what's the matter with you! 
 I'll get you back into public life a long time be- 
 fore you're ready, you can figure on that," Morrow 
 assured him. "In the meantime I wish you would 
 give the Prince the freedom of the bungalow over 
 there. He came back on Saturday no end of a 
 fellow." 
 
 "I think he's got it. He's been in the kitchen any- 
 
 170
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 how. And if he wants to go there again, I don't 
 know of any way of keeping him out." 
 
 "That's just it," the specialist agreed. The ex- 
 President took up his paddle, and as they waved good- 
 by, upon each of their lineal American faces sat a 
 conscious and a guilty smile. 
 
 That was in the beginning of September. Before 
 a week was over the freedom of the bungalow on 
 Old Loon Lake had become no idle phrase to Prince 
 Alfred, nor to Abe, who still did the portaging and 
 the waiting, nor to Vandy, who came once to satisfy 
 himself that all was as it should be and afterwards 
 stayed at home because it wasn't suggested by his 
 prince that he should go again. To the freedom 
 of the bungalow was added a wider freedom of the 
 wilderness. Lanchester made Alfred the companion 
 of his own expeditions; they shot and fished and 
 climbed together, farther and farther as the Prince's 
 strength responded. Long talks they had, talks in 
 which each did his best to disillusion the other's too 
 ardent gaze across the ocean, and each felt his gen- 
 erous admiration little troubled by all that might 
 have to be admitted. They talked mostly, of course, 
 about the human side of things, sometimes about the 
 ideal side, or the historical, leaving the politics of 
 the day alone except in so far as they illustrated 
 these. A wonderful sincerity grew up between the 
 older and the younger man there out of the world, 
 
 171
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 in which soon there was nothing hid that was Al- 
 fred and very little that was Lanchester. Alfred 
 turned to him, in a manner which he found in- 
 finitely touching, for approval of all he planned. 
 His determination not to marry now that must be 
 sound. Mr. Lanchester ought to hear old Morrow 
 on eugenics. 
 
 "Has Morrow advised you not to marry?" asked 
 Lanchester. 
 
 "Not lately. He did at first when I got it out 
 of him. I'm positive he's right." 
 
 "That must have been before he thought he could 
 cure you." 
 
 "How does a fellow know he'll stay cured? Be- 
 sides over here I've all sorts of reasons. I say, 
 Mr. Lanchester, when I've got my show started out 
 there, will you and Miss Hilary come and stay with 
 me for a bit, if I can make you comfortable?" 
 
 Mr. Lanchester agreed that he would; and later, 
 beside the fire that blazed up the big chimney in the 
 living-room, Hilary agreed that she would, too. 
 Hilary never came with them on their expeditions; 
 but she was always a part of the warm intimacy of 
 the return, always daughterly, always gay and 
 friendly, always, he whispered to himself as he pad- 
 dled back over the stars in the water, a darling a 
 darling. His love grew in him happily and inno- 
 cently; it was enough if she were there, to be shared 
 
 172
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 with her father, who also was so "jolly" to him. 
 Poor Alfred's heart embraced them both. They 
 stood, together, for all that he wanted; and all that 
 he thought he wanted was his independence, his Col- 
 orado ranch, and the lifelong friendship of these 
 two. Perhaps Hilary wouldn't marry either. Girls 
 often didn't millions in England. And he slept 
 untroubled, and woke in high spirits, and chaffed 
 Vandy, who grew more and more preoccupied, about 
 his waistcoat measurements. 
 
 Vandy grew preoccupied to the point of worry. 
 He could not make up his mind for some time what 
 he ought to do. This intimacy with the Lanchesters 
 seemed to him to be disproportionate ; Dr. Morrow's 
 influence had always seemed to him to be dispro- 
 portionate; indeed, in the matter of proportion 
 Vandy felt himself at sea and without a pilot. He 
 put it, when he finally decided to express his fears 
 to the Princess Georgina, a little differently. 
 
 "I cannot help seeing," he wrote, "that Prince Al- 
 fred is beginning to lose his bearings over here. I 
 cannot help feeling that it would be well if I could 
 be reinforced." 
 
 He wanted reinforcement for every reason, did 
 Vandy, being heartily sick of mounting guard alone, 
 but he was hardly prepared for the strength in which 
 it was promptly conceded. 
 
 "I will come," wrote the Princess Georgina, "my- 
 
 173
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 self. Sailing on the fifteenth, in the Icelandic. 
 Bringing Althea Dawe. Traveling incognito, of 
 course. In arranging for us you may say that the 
 King is extremely gratified at the remarkable im- 
 provement Prince Alfred has made, and that I come 
 at his wish to express His Majesty's thanks, as well 
 as my own, personally, to that excellent Dr. Mor- 
 row. It will interest me extremely to see the glori- 
 ous Adirondacks. I must refrain from going further 
 into matters for the present, but may add that all 
 goes well here, and that I shall hope to induce the 
 Prince to return with me at an early date." 
 
 Vandy, who was certainly out of condition, found 
 himself perspiring.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 DADDY," said Hilary to her father, giving 
 him his cup of coffee, "the Kaiser absolutely 
 won't hear of it." 
 
 "Won't hear of oh, the niece's affair. But they 
 must have known it would be hopeless. No Kaiser 
 would hear of it. The fellow is the queerest mix- 
 ture a Catholic Socialist. What would he do with 
 a half share of the throne of your friend's Grand 
 Duchy? The Pope wouldn't like it either." 
 
 "Poor Sophy ! It must be horrid to have a throne 
 and to want to share it and not to be able to. It 
 seems they took their courage in their hands at last 
 and approached him Karl Salvator did with all 
 the proper formalities. And his rage was un- 
 bounded. And he has sent the wretched Archduke 
 off to take military command of some frontier post 
 or other, miles from Berlin and his beloved labora- 
 tories. And as for poor dear Sophy herself, she's 
 arrested." 
 
 "Oh?" 
 
 "I wish you would show some little feeling, father. 
 
 175
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Sophy is aux arrets; those are her very words. It's 
 a punk thing they can do over there " 
 
 " 'Punk 1 is not " 
 
 "An expression that you care to hear me use. I 
 know, darling. But I love it. And this trick the 
 Emperor Heinrich has played on Sophy is as punk 
 as punk. There is no other word. She has the three 
 ugly rooms in the Neues Palais that she most 
 hates of the whole two hundred, and she mayn't 
 walk out of sight. And not a step without that old 
 Baroness Fertigsleben beside her and some cham- 
 berlain or other behind her. Don't you agree it's 
 punk?" 
 
 "It's restricted," said the ex-President, sugaring 
 his melon. "Certainly. Can't her mother do any- 
 thing?" 
 
 "Her mother! The Princess Anne sent her to 
 Potsdam! Her mother's just the person who deliv- 
 ers Uncle Heinrich's orders she's terrified of her 
 brother. Well, when I tell you that he took Sophy 
 away from her mother when she was three days old ! 
 He arrested her because poor Sophy, being too mis- 
 erable about Karl Salvator, was guilty of a piece of 
 lese majeste. I must say she was. The Kaiser had 
 a review of his old Markovians to console her. You 
 know she is honorary colonel of the regiment, and 
 has a perfectly gorgeous sort of uniform, all white 
 and silver, with a lovely big hat and ostrich plumes 
 
 176
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 in it she described it all to me once in one of her 
 letters. And she canters up to her place at the head 
 of the regiment and leads it past the Emperor and 
 his staff, saluting with her whip. A perfectly ideal 
 thing to do, of course. One of the few that would 
 induce me to consider being born a German royalty." 
 
 ""Profitless, Hil. And a great deal too late in the 
 day." 
 
 "Yes, I know. And of course it was infinitely 
 nicer," remembered with remorse the youngest mis- 
 tress the White House ever had. "But I wish you 
 could have made me a colonel, daddy. I should have 
 loved to lead your Virginians past you and salute 
 you with my whip. It was awfully nice, though, just 
 as it was," she reflected. "I adored it. Father 
 father mine shall we ever do it again?" 
 
 "If you would give your parent some of that 
 omelet which is slowly perishing before you, and go 
 on with your tale of the only young woman I know 
 of who has been properly brought up Besides, I 
 thought you had renounced the pomps entirely, Hil, 
 and were all for the simple life." 
 
 "Ah, well. Yes, precisely. Now you shall hear!" 
 threatened Hilary. "It was a most Kaiserlich silly 
 thing to think of to console anybody, but poor Sophy 
 went through with it. / would have had a headache 
 and sent my second in command. But anyhow. And 
 she wore, of course, her Black Eagle that he gave 
 
 177
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 her, with the orange ribbon and the rosette on her 
 hip lovely it must have looked. And afterwards 
 when they were having coffee, she says, Sophy still 
 naturally very miserable, the Emperor, after scolding 
 her for some time, very severely 'with fire-blazing 
 eyes,' she says, told her she hadn't put it on properly. 
 Well, when he said that, Sophy, feeling as she did 
 so awfully miserable she threw it on the floor. The 
 Black Eagle! His Black Eagle! Wasn't it awful? 
 And rushed crying out of the room before him, and 
 without leave or anything. Luckily only Marshal 
 von Konigsdorf was present, and he's a dear old 
 man, very fond of Sophy. But he couldn't get her 
 not arrested, and Der Einzige hasn't spoken to her 
 since." 
 
 "Well," said Mr. Lanchester equably, "it was no 
 way to treat a Black Eagle. Did she rush to her 
 mother?" 
 
 "What an idea you have of mothers ! Believe me, 
 daddy, they do not always do so. Sophy's mother 
 was at their own castle in Sternberg-Hof stein and 
 wrote to her that she was lucky that the Emperor 
 didn't 'reissen Sie ihr den Kopf ab.' So much for 
 the reigning-Princess-of-a-Grand-Duchy kind of 
 mother!" 
 
 "I feel that she is a woman to be respected more 
 than some fathers. But I sympathize deeply with 
 Sophy and her Socialist. I hope she may win him 
 
 178
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 yet. And if I may now demand your attention to 
 something else " 
 
 "Oh, father ! You've heard from Governor Dan- 
 iels. Are they talking seriously our people?" 
 
 "I have heard from Jim, as a matter of fact. And 
 though he may be talking seriously now, he will soon 
 cease to do so. The news is, Hil, that Maurice 
 Blattenheimer had offered us three millions for the 
 Silver Squaw. And we had enough before. It's 
 very perturbing." 
 
 Hilary opened her eyes a little wider, and laid her 
 fork, with particular care, upon her plate. 
 
 "But you did expect him, didn't you, dad, to pay 
 something for it?" 
 
 "Something, yes. Say my traveling expenses, and 
 a little over. But nothing like this. The man is 
 taking advantage of us, Hil. I suspect him he's 
 a boss; I suspect all bosses. What does he want to 
 give me three million dollars for?" 
 
 "Why, fo.- the mine, daddy." 
 
 "Yes I suppose he'll put it that way, 1 * groaned 
 her father. "And those agent fellows will excuse 
 themselves with the fact that the Alaska Ore Prop- 
 erties were willing to pay two million five hun- 
 dred thousand. And I've got to be satisfied with 
 the explanation and pocket the three millions, 
 or work it myself, which might pay Heaven 
 have mercy upon us even better. But this seals 
 
 179
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 every vow I ever made to keep out of politics, 
 daughter." 
 
 "But, father " 
 
 "Yes, it does. It puts us, with every advertise- 
 ment, in the millionaire class, and the people hate 
 the millionaire class, and I hate it myself. Lucky 
 Lanchester! The man with three million dollars 
 three million Silver Squaws about his neck. No, 
 Hilary the primaries would have no use for all 
 those squaws they're not popular in politics, any- 
 way " 
 
 But Hilary let the jest pass. She sat with her 
 hands clasped tight in front of her, lost in thought, 
 out of which the next instant resolution soared. 
 
 "Father, darling! This unlucky mine. Don't sell 
 it at all. Give it away. And do do run again for 
 president. The people are dying to elect you you 
 know they are. And I'm dying I'm dying to see 
 you elected. If they won't have you with a silver 
 mine which you found by yourself and perfectly hon- 
 estly, give it away " 
 
 "No," said Henry Lanchester, getting up from 
 the table, "I'm afraid they wouldn't care about that 
 kind of man either. I may possibly bestow it on you, 
 if you'll promise to take it away. But we'll digest 
 this later, Hil. For the time being the point is that 
 Simcox will be here at three this afternoon about it, 
 and I've got to see him, and Prince Alfred is also 
 
 180
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 coming at three, and he and Enoch and I were to 
 have tarred the second canoe. You will take care 
 of him, please. I'll join you at tea-time Simcox 
 will be gone in an hour." 
 
 Hilary also left her place, and walked to the 
 window. 
 
 "Bertha and I," she announced, "were going after 
 cat-tails this afternoon. They're lovely and brown 
 now in another day or two they'll be all burst and 
 spoiled. Couldn't Enoch be showing Prince Alfred 
 how to tar a canoe?" 
 
 "Quite impossible. You must take him with you 
 instead of Bertha. He is really not difficult by him- 
 self rather delightful. Let him take his own line 
 and you'll find him a dear fellow, and very enter- 
 taining." 
 
 "I'll do my best," said Hilary, with a lip that 
 quivered between a smile and something quite dif- 
 ferent.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 WITH care and precision and a claspknife 
 Prince Alfred was cutting cat-tails and 
 handing them to Hilary, who laid them in 
 the flat bottom of the boat, heads one way, stems 
 the other. He was at great pains to pick out the 
 longest and finest. She took them from his hand 
 with a touch of sedateness that became her as sweetly 
 as possible. 
 
 "I suppose," he said presently, "that you want 
 these merely for putting about, don't you? Just to 
 look pretty?" 
 
 "Isn't that reason enough to want them?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "Of course it is. But I should like it so much 
 better if we were getting them to do something use- 
 ful with." 
 
 She thought a minute. "Like strewing the stone 
 floor of the banqueting hall of the castle," she 
 laughed. 
 
 Very quickly he followed her into the castle. 
 "Yes, something like that. Didn't they live glori- 
 
 182
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 ously in those days? But I don't suppose we should 
 have been allowed to do it, all the same. It would 
 have been a lout's job. Steady! I'm sorry." A 
 bulrush had gone into the water. 
 
 "Silly of me not to take proper hold of it. But 
 I'm not so sure about 'gloriously.' Think of the 
 bones mixed up with the rushes, and the hounds 
 growling, and and the potato skins." 
 
 "We shouldn't have had potatoes," he told her. 
 "The chief senechal would never have heard of them. 
 I say isn't that enough? Right-o." He scrambled 
 into his place again and from there he contemplated 
 her for a moment, a little flushed under her wide hat, 
 in satisfaction and in silence. 
 
 "Do you happen ever to have seen a Holbein of 
 the Lady Vaux?" he asked her. 
 
 "No why? I mean, where is it?" 
 . "The original's at Windsor, I think. You're not 
 a bit like her she's rather a beefy old thing but 
 I'd like awfully to see you in the headdress she wears. 
 It has little flat wings along the face, edged with 
 pearls, and a sort of jib-sheet of velvet sticking out 
 at one side with a veil on it. I've always remem- 
 bered it awfully well, I don't know why." 
 
 "It's odd how one does remember things." 
 
 "I think it's simply dear of you to let me come 
 like this instead of Bertha. It's rather rough on 
 Bertha, of course." 
 
 183
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "My father was so distressed. A wretched Mr. 
 Simcox telegraphed this morning " 
 
 "Yes, I know. I say do you mind too awfully ? 
 About the wretched Mr. Simcox?" He looked a 
 trifle dashed. 
 
 Hilary let the water play through her fingers. 
 "No not too awfully," she admitted. 
 
 "Because I'm uncommonly grateful really. 
 There are some things I want to talk to you about." 
 
 Hilary looked at him bravely. "Do," she said. 
 "I'm afraid father's advice would be best, but " 
 
 "He's splendid, isn't he? But this is more a mat- 
 ter of feeling. Something I want you to help me to 
 decide." 
 
 Hilary, clasping her hands about her knees and 
 considering the tips of her shoes, gave him a very 
 silent attention. 
 
 "You know I am expecting my aunt." 
 
 "Oh, yes." She looked up quickly. "On Satur- 
 day, isn't it? Are you quite sure that Dr. Morrow 
 has everything? He knows, doesn't he, that there 
 are simply stacks of linen and things over here?" 
 
 "He said something about two pillow-cases. But 
 that will all be looked after " 
 
 ("There has always, always been a chamberlain 
 for such purposes," she thought to herself. "Of 
 course.") 
 
 "That isn't my difficulty. My difficulty is this. 
 
 184
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Am I bound to tell my aunt about the Colorado 
 scheme?" 
 
 She reflected. "Why should you be?" 
 
 "It's not easy to explain, but in England I should 
 feel I was; and over here I don't, somehow." 
 
 "Does Colonel Vandy know yet?" 
 
 "Rather not! I'm not bound to tell Vandy. That 
 would upset my apple cart, and no mistake. It would 
 be his duty, you see, to upset it. Nobody knows 
 except Dr. Morrow and we three." 
 
 "Wouldn't it be the Princess's duty to upset it, 
 too?" 
 
 "I'm afraid she would think so." 
 
 "And could she?" 
 
 "She could have a jolly good try." 
 
 They exchanged glances full of anxiety and under- 
 standing. 
 
 "Can't you leave it all to Dr. Morrow?" 
 
 "Dr. Morrow told me yesterday that my lungs 
 were as sound as his. He will help, of course, but 
 if I am as well as that and I told her I wanted to 
 live in Colorado " 
 
 "I see. She wouldn't hear of it. She would say 
 it would break her heart." 
 
 "No," said Prince Alfred gloomily. "She 
 wouldn't say that. But she would use other argu- 
 ments just as useful." 
 
 "Then I wouldn't! I wouldn't tell her," cried 
 
 185
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Hilary. "Your American feeling is right for when 
 you are in America. Over here we don't tell every- 
 thing to aunts." 
 
 "You keep 'em in the dark?" 
 
 "Yes when it matters as much as this matters, 
 and they might, with the best intentions, do harm," 
 Hilary pronounced. 
 
 He looked at her with all his heart. "I love to 
 hear you say it matters," he said. "To me, of 
 course, it's everything on earth. And a few things," 
 he added simply, with his eyes still on her face, "and 
 a few things in heaven." 
 
 It was only as if he had kissed her hand, but some- 
 thing in it frightened them both, and as for an in- 
 stant they looked at one another, tears gathered in 
 her eyes and in his. 
 
 "Dear Alfred, I think you mustn't say those 
 things," she told him, very sadly. 
 
 "You're quite right I won't. But, Hil dear, I 
 hadn't finished about my Aunt Georgina." 
 
 "I'll send the pillow-cases." 
 
 "Bother the pillow-cases. You'll come and see 
 her, won't you?" 
 
 "Why, of course. Father and I if you think 
 she " 
 
 "I think she would expect it. , She never travels 
 without her visitors' book. And she is your god- 
 mother, when all's said and done." 
 
 186
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "I hadn't forgotten it," Hilary told him demurely. 
 "Oughtn't we to be getting back? I'm sure it's 
 five." 
 
 "I remember it all the time. And if I do decide 
 to tell her about the ranch scheme I don't think I 
 will, but if I do you'll back me up about it, won't 
 you?" 
 
 Hilary straightened her hat and took up the tiller 
 ropes. "I don't feel," she said with some discern- 
 ment, as he slowly dipped the oars, "I don't feel as 
 if I should be exactly the right person. Father 
 might. But I am sure the strongest ally on your side 
 will be Dr. Morrow." 
 
 They rowed back through the flaming woods, over 
 the golden water, with hardly another word. How 
 indeed could they talk, with two worlds imposing 
 silence on them ? But when he had beached the boat 
 and shipped his oars, and turned to help her out: 
 
 "After all, I'm twenty-three," he said. 
 
 It did not seem a very apt thing to say, and per- 
 haps Hilary thought so, for as she put her hand in 
 his, she made no reply.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE Princess Georgina traveled as the Coun- 
 tess of Yorick; the Lady Althea Dawe was 
 registered as Miss Revelstoke. Their in- 
 cognito was respected even in the harbor of New 
 York, respected beyond anything that either of the 
 ladies probably dared to hope. People looked at 
 them, bowed slightly, and let them pass; even the 
 reporters let them pass. It was the first thing the 
 Princess said to Dr. Morrow on the Saturday after- 
 noon, when Colonel Vandy finally got them seated 
 in the buckboard at Moose Lick, outside the station. 
 "We have been quite unmolested," she said, "quite 
 unmolested." She also gave out immediately that 
 she meant, if possible, to return by the liner sailing 
 the following week. It would be far too short a 
 visit, but for her part she was never so happy as at 
 sea. Bundled up in a deck chair, the voyage was one 
 long delight. For her friend, Lady Althea, it was 
 perhaps more of a rest cure ; a statement which Lady 
 Althea applauded with rather a plaintive smile. 
 There was something firm and fine and intimidat- 
 
 188
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 ing about the Princess which reached Dr. Morrow's 
 consciousness at once. He felt it, and thought well 
 to reply to it. As he and Vandy tucked the rugs 
 about the ladies : 
 
 "Your nephew was very anxious to come and meet 
 you himself, madam," he said. "I was sorry not to 
 be able to allow it." 
 
 "Ah," Princess Georgina replied. "Yes. We 
 did hope, did we not, Althea, to see his dear face 
 on the platform. And as he is now so well, Dr. 
 Morrow, may I ask why you thought necessary to 
 forbid it?" 
 
 "I'm afraid we must use 'well' as a relative term," 
 Dr. Morrow, who sat in front beside the driver, 
 leaned back to say. "Crowds are very bad for him." 
 
 "But there were only, beside ourselves, one gentle- 
 man, two men with guns, and a dog," objected the 
 Princess ; and indeed Moose Lick had definitely said 
 good-by to summer visitors. 
 
 "Precisely. But if it had leaked out that Prince 
 Alfred was to be here, it is just possible that there 
 would have been quite a few more." 
 
 "Oh, yes in that case " 
 
 "Moose Lick has been out of bounds for the 
 Prince all summer, and we weren't taking any risks. 
 But I think I may promise that he shall be allowed 
 to see you off, madam. Especially," the doctor 
 added gallantly, "as nobody could suppose that you 
 
 189
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 would be leaving us so soon. I hope the hamper 
 under the seat is not inconveniencing you. Abe, 
 when was that mare shod last?" 
 
 Vandy, squeezed in beside the doctor, looked 
 straight in front of him. Dr. Morrow's attention 
 was fixed upon the mare's off hind leg; and the 
 glance which the two ladies exchanged went unob- 
 served. The silence that fell was not broken until 
 Colonel Vandeleur began pointing out and naming 
 the misty peaks that showed as the road wound into 
 the woods. Riley followed with the two maids and 
 the luggage; and so, before the October sun had 
 drawn the last of his red fire out of the maples, the 
 arrival was accomplished. 
 
 It was a most affectionate arrival. Dignified, 
 graceful and affectionate. Dr. Morrow stood by, 
 with a careful eye upon his charge, as it took place. 
 The Princess advanced with outstretched arms; Dr. 
 Morrow watched Prince Alfred surrender first one 
 cheek and then the other to be kissed, and heard 
 his studied replies to the ejaculations that fell like 
 a warm shower-bath about him. The Princess, with 
 her head up, wept into a handkerchief that seemed 
 the emblem of authority; Lady Althea cried also, 
 unashamed. 
 
 "Out of the jaws of death," exclaimed Princess 
 Georgina. "If ever there was a Divine interposi- 
 tion, darling Alfie " 
 
 190
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Dr. Morrow went into his own room, and there, 
 being of an impulsive disposition, emptied his rifle 
 several times out of the window. Later, at supper, 
 Princess Georgina remarked that she thought she 
 had heard shooting. 
 
 "It was a feu de joie, madam, in honor of your 
 arrival," the doctor told her. 
 
 "And a very pretty thought," said she. 
 
 It was soon plain that the Princess had no desire 
 for anything like an official interview with Dr. Mor- 
 row. She gave him the King's messages with every 
 circumstance that could enhance their significance, 
 except privacy. She expressed her own gratitude 
 with effusion, wondered and exclaimed, and begged 
 to know Dr. Morrow's marvelous secret, as if it 
 could be communicated over a cup of tea, hinted the 
 immense reputation the doctor had made for him- 
 self in England, "where the interest is naturally 
 enormous," but adroitly avoided drawing upon her- 
 self any professional fire whatever. Observing 
 that, the doctor reserved his ammunition, and 
 this was the harder for him to do as he had 
 also to note that Alfred, that first morning, ate 
 less than half his usual breakfast, spoke care- 
 fully, and seemed "all out of proportion," trou- 
 bled about the punctilio which should attend his 
 aunt. 
 
 The doctor had an eye upon the party; the Lady 
 
 191
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Althea had an eye, which was also intelligent, upon 
 the doctor. 
 
 "That man," she said to her mistress, "will never 
 permit it." 
 
 The maids were gone, leaving the ladies to rest 
 in their double-bedded chamber. 
 
 "Permit what?" 
 
 "The dear Prince to return with us." 
 
 "He may not be anxious for it, as every day the 
 arrangement continues is of untold value to him. 
 But he must permit it if Alfie wishes." 
 
 "Do you think, darling, that Prince Alfred will 
 wish it?" 
 
 "I have not spoken seriously to him yet, but I think 
 he will. I am very sleepy, Althea. This air is 
 marvelous I think you may leave Alfred to me. 
 Good night, Althea." 
 
 "Good night, darling," said the Lady Althea obe- 
 diently, but from the pillow she kept a pathetic eye 
 upon Alfred's log cabin in the starlight, where a 
 lamp was burning, and did not sleep, faithful creature 
 that she was, until it was put out. 
 
 That was on Sunday night. The next morning 
 Colonel Vandeleur said to the Princess Georgina, 
 
 "Visitors in a place like this are hardly to be ex- 
 pected, Highness, but Mr. Ex-President Lanchester 
 and his daughter, of whom I know you have heard 
 a great deal " 
 
 192
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "And nothing but what is delightful," interposed 
 the Princess. 
 
 And who are practically our only neighbors, pro- 
 pose to pay you their respects to-day. It was ar- 
 ranged that we should let them know, if you had 
 quite recovered from the fatigue of the journey, 
 whether you could receive them. 
 
 "Abe or Riley can go over," observed Dr. Mor- 
 row. 
 
 "Nothing," declared Princess Georgina, "could give 
 me greater pleasure. Mr. Lanchester has been quite 
 extraordinarily kind I should be glad of an op- 
 portunity to thank him. And it will be a special 
 pleasure to meet the young lady, who, as I daresay 
 you all know, is my goddaughter ' 
 
 "I didn't!" exclaimed Dr. Morrow. "Now that's 
 what I call remarkable." 
 
 "It's not what I call remarkable," said the Princess 
 equably. "I have altogether stood sponsor to forty- 
 five forty-five, or is it forty-seven infants, Althea ?" 
 
 "Forty-seven, Princess. The last was Lady New 
 Forest's. You remember Lord New Forest gave 
 five thousand toward the expense of dividing our 
 dear Bishop's diocese, and you said you couldn't re- 
 fuse." 
 
 "There is no reason, Althea, to go into whys and 
 wherefores. I only hesitated really because Lord 
 New Forest being born Isaacson had never, so 
 
 193
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPP INE 
 
 far as I could ascertain, been baptized himself. It 
 did seem to increase one's responsibility. But 
 you will all understand my added interest in Miss 
 Lanchester. I hear, by the way, that she has grown 
 up very beautiful." 
 
 The Princess looked round inquiringly as she 
 spoke, and her gaze rested last upon Alfred, who re- 
 sponded "Very," in a tone of indifference far too pro- 
 found. 
 
 "Ah, well, we shall see. You may say, Colonel 
 Vandeleur, that twelve o'clock will suit me perfectly. 
 That will enable me to get my letters done, and 
 leave all the time that will be necessary for the 
 visit before luncheon." 
 
 "Abe is chopping wood at my place," said Alfred 
 to Colonel Vandy, as they got up from the table. 
 "I'll send him to you." 
 
 Something in the way he said it struck the gentle 
 ear of the Lady Althea. 
 
 "He is going to write" she whispered to the 
 Princess as they stepped out upon the veranda. "He 
 is going to write to her himself." 
 
 "Let him," she heard in return. "My dear Althea, 
 a young man must have his amusements."
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 A1OUT two hours later the Princess was hap- 
 pily engaged in conversation with Mr. Lan- 
 chester, while Alfred and Hilary devoted 
 themselves to the entertainment of the Lady Althea. 
 There was no doubt, from the poise of Princess 
 Georgina's gray head and the deference of Mr. Lan- 
 chester's, that she and the ex-President were dis- 
 cussing matters of international importance. Lady 
 Althea was sweetly interested in local ones. Alfred 
 looked a great deal, with absorption, at his boots; 
 but all were doing well when the Princess, at the 
 end of one of her own sentences, said with easy 
 graciousness, "Now I think I must be allowed a chat 
 with you, Miss Lanchester. Shall we take a little 
 walk, or shall the others take a little walk? Ah, 
 well," as the others filed out, "perhaps that is best. 
 Now will you come, please, and sit over here beside 
 me ? That's right. This is a day to remember for us 
 both, is it not, dear Miss Lanchester? When we think 
 of the circumstances in which we last met? Such a 
 dear, wee thing you were. So pathetic, so helpless!" 
 
 195
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "It makes one feel very big now," said Hilary 
 sweetly. 
 
 "Yes, no doubt. And very old, now, for my part. 
 Very old indeed, my dear. I was your age then. 
 Ah, me !" A pleasant smile rode on the sigh. "Now 
 tell me, dear, what do you mean to do with your 
 life? Not yet engaged?" 
 
 It was quite a fair question from a godmother, 
 but Hilary had to remember that it was. 
 
 "No," she said, "I am devoted to my father." 
 
 "Ah, yes you two. It is easy to see what you 
 are to one another. I lost my own father very, 
 very early. I know what it is to miss a father. But 
 I should have married I should have married all 
 the same. Marriage is the only career for a woman, 
 don't you think?" 
 
 "Perhaps the happiest. We marry a good deal 
 over here," said Hilary with sudden spirit. 
 
 "To be sure you do. Yes, I have always under- 
 stood so." Just the suspicion of a stare came into 
 Princess Georgina's eyes, and vanished. She put her 
 hand into a black velvet bag and drew out a small 
 packet. 
 
 "I have taken my godmother's privilege, my dear, 
 and brought you a tiny gift," she said, and handed 
 it to Hilary, with a gesture bonv of many prize- 
 givings. It was an exquisite little brooch, an open 
 shell, with silver cupids in it, and a garland of roses. 
 
 196
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Oh, the darling!" cried Hilary. "Is it really 
 for me? Thank you so much." Just an instant she 
 hesitated; then very gracefully and prettily she kissed 
 Princess Georgina's hand. 
 
 "It has charm, I think, the little thing. I am so 
 gratified that it pleases you. Something old, I 
 thought, might, in this country where all is so new. 
 Marquisate it is do you know the work?" 
 
 "Oh, very well. By Weise, isn't it? I have some 
 earlier bits, a pendant or two and some earrings, 
 among my mother's jewels, but nothing so sweet as 
 this." 
 
 "Ah, yes, your poor, dear mother. Was your 
 mother an American, dear?" 
 
 "One of her ancestors was a signer of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence," said Hilary proudly. 
 
 "One of her ancestors but it was only the other 
 day!" slipped from the Princess. "Ah, yes," she 
 retrieved, "no doubt that is a great patent over here. 
 And your father's people were they signatories, 
 too?" 
 
 "Oh, my father's people no. But they are our 
 romance " Hilary launched out, and stopped. 
 
 "Mayn't I hear the romance?" 
 
 "Should you really care to? Well, once upon a 
 time I mean about the end of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, there came over from France to the English 
 court a young man who called himself Henri de 
 
 197
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Lancastre. And he said that the Duke of Lancaster 
 was his father, and that his mother, who was a 
 French lady of noble birth, had been married to the 
 Duke by Catholic rites at a village in Auvergne, and 
 that she had died at his birth. He had been brought 
 up by an old priest, so the story goes, who now 
 sent him to England. Does it interest you?" 
 "It sounds a fascinating tale. Pray go on." 
 'Of course it's all must, and dust, and rust now," 
 smiled Hilary, "and has been for centuries. But 
 King Richard was quite nice to him, and made him 
 a knight banneret and a captain of the guard; but 
 the Duke, who didn't seem to want him about, after 
 a time got him sent to Ireland to quell a rising of 
 some sort, and he must have been there when the 
 Duke died. Anyway the next thing was the King's 
 seizing the Duke's estates which you must know 
 about so much, much better than I do " Hilary ap- 
 pealed. 
 
 "I've forgotten all my history. I beg you will go 
 
 on." 
 
 "And I suppose Henri de Lancastre thought he 
 had better not come back. Anyway he didn't, even 
 when his half-brother came to the throne. He must 
 have been on bad terms with his half-brother." 
 
 "Very likely." 
 
 "So he stayed on in Ireland among the kernes 
 and the outlaws and married one of them, and be- 
 
 198
 
 came just a squireen there, and brought up his fam- 
 ily, and he called his eldest son Henry Gaunt Lan- 
 caster. They were there in Tyrone till the end of 
 the seventeenth century, sinking to be tenant farmers 
 and publicans and all sorts, but always the eldest 
 son being called Henry Gaunt. Then the last of 
 them came to America, but some time before that 
 the name had been corrupted the way we spell it. 
 And here we are, father and I and his name is 
 Henry Gaunt Lanchester." 
 
 The Princess started, ever so slightly and then 
 laughed merrily. "What a very amusing story," she 
 said. "You must tell it to Prince Alfred. Or per- 
 haps you have already told it to him." 
 
 "No," said Hilary. "It has not occurred to me 
 to tell him. You asked me, you know." 
 
 "To be sure I did. And what a delightful ro- 
 mance it is! John of Gaunt married often, and not 
 always wisely. The last time his governess the 
 Beauforts owe themselves to that. But it took an 
 act of Parliament; and the Pope, too, had to be at a 
 little trouble about it. This episode must have been 
 after the death of the first wife, while he was con- 
 ducting that unlucky expedition against Charles. 
 He married in England, he married in Spain; and 
 now you say he married in France, too. And an ex- 
 president of the United States is Henry Gaunt Lan- 
 chester. How very droll !" 
 
 199
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Hilary placed the little box with the brooch in 
 it definitely on the table, and sat up very straight. 
 
 "He is, but please don't mention it," she said. 
 "He used to be Henry G., but he dropped the 'Gaunt' 
 as soon as he thought of the presidency. It would 
 not make him any the more popular, I am afraid, in 
 this country." 
 
 "I shall forget it at once," said the Princess plac- 
 idly. "My dear Miss Lanchester, I am a well of 
 forgotten things." She turned a leisurely glance out 
 of the window. "I see Prince Alfred has taken 
 Lady Althea out in a canoe," she said. "I am 
 amazed simply amazed that my eyes should be- 
 hold him do such a thing as that again. And yet 
 I should not be amazed. He had the prayers of all 
 England twice every Sunday in the churches; and 
 I am told in many a Nonconformist chapel, too. 
 And how happy we are in the instrument selected ! I 
 esteem it a privilege to have met Dr. Morrow." 
 
 "I think most people do," said Hilary quietly. 
 
 The Princess joined the tips of her fingers to- 
 gether and her eyes, on the couple in the canoe, were 
 gentle with gratitude. 
 
 "My dear, dear boy! I stand to him, as you may 
 know, Miss Lanchester, and have long stood, in the 
 place of both father and mother. And I thought, I 
 am sure at one time we all thought, that so little 
 could be done that he was not to be spared to enter 
 
 200
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 upon the future which opened so greatly to one in 
 his place in the world. And now we have him back, 
 to pledge his sword anew to his King; and to dedi- 
 cate his person, to devote his life, to subordinate his 
 every interest and hope and ambition to the service 
 of his country. Standing as he does so near the 
 throne, you will realize how great his opportunities 
 are. You and dear Mr. Lanchester have shown 
 him such kindness, I am sure I may safely let you 
 partially into the plans that are now maturing for 
 his future happiness " the Princess at last brought 
 her gaze back into the room and let it rest calmly 
 upon Hilary "for his future happiness in mar- 
 riage." 
 
 Hilary smiled sweetly. "We should love to hear," 
 she said. 
 
 "I must name no names, but there is a certain dear 
 little friend of mine not a thousand miles from Pots- 
 dam an alliance that would cause as deep satisfac- 
 tion in some chancelleries as it would cause dismay 
 in some others. You will understand that one cannot 
 speak freely of these things. Or you would, my dear 
 young lady, if your country had any foreign policy, 
 which of course it hasn't." 
 
 "I beg your pardon " 
 
 "I assure you I meant no offence. And that is 
 why we must now begin to hurry Prince Alfred's 
 return a little, I grieve to say. This air I so de- 
 
 20 1
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 plore his being obliged to leave it. I myself feel a 
 different creature. But a certain important individ- 
 ual, with whose Government for many unhappy years 
 our relations have been rather strained, is now anx- 
 ious for the olive branch, and well, I may tell you 
 that the meeting of the young people has actually 
 been arranged. You will see it all, if you look, in 
 due time no doubt in the papers." 
 
 "Actually arranged," said Hilary. 
 
 "I will even if you will consider it a very great 
 secret indeed whisper where. At Clavismore, the 
 seat of the Maccleughs, near Dunfermline. My dear 
 little friend is coming to be with her aunt, who has 
 taken the place for the shooting. The visit was to 
 have been earlier, but has now been postponed to the 
 end of October, by which time my dearest Alfred 
 Ah, here you are, Mr. Lanchester! To take your 
 charming girl away from me, I fear! You should 
 not have had her a moment sooner; but we had just 
 finished our chat." 
 
 They made their farewells. Hilary's eyes were 
 very bright, her manner more than usually self-pos- 
 sessed. A sudden little silver bell had struck in her 
 brain. 
 
 "Sophy!" it tinkled, "Sophy Sternburg-Hofstein!" 
 "The Archduchess Sophia Ludovica of Sternburg- 
 Hofstein!" It ran into a chime.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THERE were three days of pleasant expedi- 
 tions by wood-trail and water, expeditions 
 which gave Princess Georgina the measure 
 of Alfred's extraordinary return of strength. She 
 mentioned it and marveled over it all day long. Once 
 or twice, when he picked up his own light canoe for 
 a short portage, or dragged a heavy log to the fire, 
 she protested; and then he, poor fellow, was betrayed 
 into boasting, broadening his shoulders, showing her 
 the muscle of his arms. It was on his lips to say to 
 her, "Old Morrow says my lungs are as dry as his," 
 but he checked himself in time. "You see how the 
 place suits me," he told her instead; and she, clasp- 
 ing her hands, replied, "But it has been everything 
 to you, Alfred." 
 
 It was not till Thursday morning that Her Royal 
 Highness sought an interview with Prince Alfred. 
 Lady Althea thought this was leaving it rather late ; 
 but the Princess said that she would do it in her own 
 good time and way, and in that time and way she 
 did it. After breakfast she said: 
 
 203
 
 { HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "I should like to look at the lake from your quar- 
 ters for a little while, Alfred," and they went over 
 together, he carrying rug and shawl, and insisting 
 on it against Vandy's attempt to take them. He 
 made her comfortable in his own armchair outside the 
 hut, and sat himself on a wooden bucket that Abe 
 had left upside down in the sun. Thus balanced, with 
 his hands thrust in his trousers pockets, he waited 
 upon what she might have to say. 
 
 But the Princess was not in a hurry. She opened 
 her velvet bag with deliberation and took out her 
 knitting. Abe, who was cleaning fishing tackle at 
 the edge of the water, went inside, and came out 
 again with a soft red felt hat, which he placed on 
 the ground beside Prince Alfred. Then he lifted 
 his own with awkward ceremony to the Princess, 
 and retired further along the lake. 
 
 "That good fellow is your body servant, I sup- 
 pose," said she. 
 
 "Abe? Oh, Abe is my counselor and friend. 
 Abe's no end of a good chap." 
 
 "He evidently thinks you ought to put your hat 
 on." 
 
 "Well, do you mind if I do? The sun does 
 rather get one in the eyes." 
 
 "By all means, put it on. But what a very peculiar 
 color! Is that the latest fashion in New York?" 
 
 "It is rather gay, isn't it? We wear them in the 
 
 204
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 woods about here to prevent other fellows shooting 
 us by mistake," he told her. "There used to be 
 quite a number of accidents that way." 
 
 "Really? What a clever precaution! I hope you 
 always wear it, Alfred. How terrible it would be if 
 but such a thing is unthinkable. You haven't 
 asked much about home affairs, Alfred. But I sup- 
 pose the Times has kept you informed." The Prin- 
 cess knitted busily. 
 
 Her nephew glanced not quite comfortably 
 through the door of his cabin, where more than one 
 tight roll of that newspaper tied and addressed by 
 the lady who now questioned him, lay in a corner. 
 
 "Yes, thanks awfully, Auntie George. It was 
 simply too good of you to take all that trouble." 
 
 "A pleasure to me. It has been an interesting sum- 
 mer in many ways. Have you noticed the ex- 
 traordinary popularity of Victor's betrothal? We 
 are all so pleased." 
 
 "Does he like the Russian girl?" 
 
 "Like her? He adores her. And between our- 
 selves, Alfie, I do not think he was altogether pre- 
 pared to. But before he and darling Sacha had 
 been in the same house for three days, poor dear old 
 Vic was her slave. It was really most amusing. 
 But she subjugated us all, I assure you. Even I, 
 with my natural dislike of foreigners, came sous le 
 charme." 
 
 205
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "How jolly," said Alfred absently, and picked up 
 a twig of balsam. 
 
 "Doushka doushka darling, you know it is 
 nothing but doushka-mg. And now, dear boy, about 
 your own plans. You will not " 
 
 "It's not possible, Dr. Morrow says, to make 
 them very far ahead," Alfred cut in hurriedly, "but 
 so far as I know at present " 
 
 "I was going to say you will not be surprised to 
 hear that, ever since the more reassuring reports of 
 your health began to reach us, your affairs have been 
 occupying a good deal of attention, Alfie. Natu- 
 rally. And one part of my mission here is to tell you 
 that matters are afoot." 
 
 Suddenly and with great speed Alfred's intention 
 to speak about Colorado, which had been bubbling 
 near the surface of his mind, sank to the bottom of 
 the sea there, deep, deep down, where a mermaid 
 watched over it with a face like Hilary Lanchester's. 
 He began to strip the balsam twig of its greenery. 
 
 "Yes?" he said. 
 
 "To begin with, Alfred, we are all hoping John 
 particularly is hoping that you may find yourself 
 able to return with me." 
 
 "Next week? Absolutely impossible, I am afraid. 
 If only for the reason that I have promised the 
 Phippses to spend a day or two at Washington be- 
 fore I go," countered Alfred. "I believe that has 
 
 206
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 got about, and after the ripping way this country 
 has treated me " 
 
 The objection told. Princess Georgina laid down 
 her knitting to consider it. 
 
 "I think you should have given us some intima- 
 tion of that," she said. "It does make a difference. 
 I could not be involved in a visit to Washington I 
 have not come prepared for anything of the sort. 
 What is the earliest date, then, Alfred, that will en- 
 able you to make this visit before you sail?" 
 
 "I am not thinking of the visit at present, aunt. 
 Dr. Morrow strongly advises me to winter here. He 
 has very kindly offered me his house, as more con- 
 venient for messing. And he will look me up, he 
 says, every fortnight or so. I thought Vandy might 
 go back with you he's frightfully fed up with this 
 place and somebody else could come, if it's abso- 
 lutely necessary." 
 
 "Major Scrope might be appointed. It would be 
 some little acknowledgment of his wonderful work 
 on the Brahmapootra. And your old tutor, Kenneth 
 Talbot, is dying to be sent," temporized the Prin- 
 cess, lost in thought. "You certainly have the gift 
 of attaching people, Alfred." 
 
 "I'd like Scrope. But not Tabby, please. He'd 
 die of it. There isn't a knickknack about the place," 
 said Alfred with an encouraged eye. "The man I 
 most want is Henry Hake. He might bring my dog. 
 
 207
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Hake and Tinker would both be no end of use to 
 me here." 
 
 "I don't think Hake could come. He's married 
 the housekeeper's daughter, at Sandringham and 
 his wife is expecting. Tinker, dear thing I saw him 
 just before we started was as fit as fit. I said to 
 him, 'Any message for master, Tinker?' and he 
 barked loudly. I am sure he understood." 
 
 "Hake married ! He never mentioned it !" 
 
 "He wouldn't perhaps, writing about the dog. So 
 Dr. Morrow recommends you to winter in this 
 lonely place. Surely all its advantages could be had, 
 if necessary, in Switzerland! I hope he will think 
 so, for I fear, Alfred I very greatly fear that it 
 is impossible." 
 
 "What makes it impossible?" 
 
 Princess Georgina let her hands and her knitting 
 fall into her lap, measured the distance to Abe, 
 glanced about her, and drew her chair a little nearer 
 to her nephew. 
 
 "There are the most important reasons why you 
 should return at once to England, Alfred. You have 
 become part of a very significant arrangement between 
 ourselves and the Wilhelmstrasse. I tell you this at 
 once, because, knowing your character as I do, I am 
 sure you would prefer it to any beating about the 
 bush. I have to some extent managed Victor. You, 
 Alfred, I should never attempt to manage." She 
 
 208
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 paused and smiled at Prince Alfred, who stopped 
 peeling his balsam twig long enough to say, 
 
 "I should be glad then, Aunt Georgina, if you 
 wouldn't beat about the bush." 
 
 "Certain negotiations with the Kaiser's govern- 
 ment would be materially assisted by don't jump 
 by your marriage to one of the young German Arch- 
 duchesses, Alfred. There are, as you know, three, 
 an alliance with any of whom would be extremely 
 passlich. But Heinrich has reasons of his own for 
 preferring that it should be Sophia of Sternburg- 
 Hofstein; and I happen to know that it is his special 
 wish that you and she should meet at as early a date 
 as possible. We propose, therefore, your health 
 having been under Divine Providence practically re- 
 established, to carry out the original plan of last 
 June it matured during the Kaiser's visit that So- 
 phy should come with her aunt to Clavismore, and 
 that you should find yourself in that neighbor- 
 hood. The Archduchess Valerie is my cousin by 
 marriage, and she has very naturally already invited 
 me " 
 
 Alfred put up his hand, and the Princess Georgina 
 had an instant of remembering that this was the 
 King's brother; while she was only his aunt. The 
 young man's face had gone very white and sharp; 
 his mouth had taken its most "difficult" line. 
 
 "I would rather not know anything more about 
 
 209
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 it," he said. "I shall not marry. My wealth will 
 not permit it." 
 
 "Be reasonable, Alfred. You are recovered." 
 "Not enough for that. Ask Dr. Morrow." 
 "But I have asked Dr. Morrow. Without mak- 
 ing any fuss about it, I said to him only this morn 3 
 ing, 'I hope we may now consider that the state 
 of the Prince's lungs would be no bar, for in- 
 stance, to marriage,' and his reply was, 'None what- 
 ever.' " 
 
 "I can only say that he talked very differently in 
 July. I know what his ideas are upon that subject. 
 And I know what my own are." 
 
 "My dear Alfred, those notions are all very well 
 and to be encouraged among ordinary people; but 
 princes have nothing to do with them. Princes must 
 marry. It is their first duty, not to themselves, but 
 to their country. What horrors there have been that 
 wise marriages, and plenty of issue, would have pre- 
 vented !" 
 
 "The succession doesn't lie with me." 
 "You are very near it. John has been bitterly dis- 
 appointed so far bitterly. There is Victor, of 
 course, but who knows ? He is far from strong. We 
 urge nothing upon you that would be repugnant to 
 your feelings, dear boy, only that you should allow 
 yourself to receive an impression of a very dear and 
 good girl, and let matters take their course. It is 
 
 210
 
 most unusual to explain with all this candor in ad- 
 vance, but knowing you as I do " 
 
 "It is useless to talk to me about marriage, Aunt 
 Georgina," said her nephew, and threw away the 
 twig of balsam as if it had been the happiness of 
 a lifetime. He said no more, but looked at the 
 ground, and that was the moment when, as the 
 Princess told Lady Althea afterwards, her heart 
 sank within her. It sank depressed but not despair- 
 ing, not by any means despairing. There was plenty 
 of time, and in England plenty of influence. Here 
 in the wilderness the Princess was alone; at home 
 she would be reinforced, she warmed to think, by 
 what overwhelming allies. In the end the highest, 
 best course must prevail. In the meantime 
 
 "Be that as it may, Alfred I hope you will change 
 your mind, but be that as it may you will understand 
 what a very awkward dilemma would be forced 
 upon John and all of us by any failure on your part 
 at least to appear at Clavismore. Everybody knows, 
 Heinrich better than anybody, that you are perfectly 
 well; and he is more than usually jumpy just now. 
 Victor's affair was to him a great disappointment. 
 Dear Sacha had more than one suitor, you must 
 know. Heinrich has set his heart upon this marriage. 
 It may not take place. Quite probably Sophy may 
 not be able to bear the sight of you very likely, 
 indeed, if you look as you are looking now, dear 
 
 211
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 boy. But the meeting we are committed to; the 
 meeting in courtesy must take place. I am here to tell 
 you that from your King, Alfred, and to beg that 
 you will so order your affairs as to consult his pleasure 
 in this matter, as well as the interests of your coun- 
 try." 
 
 The Princess had risen as she spoke, and stood, 
 velvet bag and knitting notwithstanding, a very 
 august and impressive figure. Prince Alfred also got 
 upon his feet. He stood looking at the ground for 
 a full moment before he spoke, his hands in his 
 pockets, frowning, as Lady Althea heard afterwards, 
 quite detestably. 
 
 "I must not detain you, Aunt Georgina, if you 
 have definitely planned to go back to England by the 
 next ship as you tell me. I do not find it convenient 
 to go with you; but you may say to John that I 
 will carry out his wishes, and be available, without 
 prejudice, for this occasion you speak of by the last 
 week in October. On the definite and clear under- 
 standing, which I must ask him to take the trouble 
 to cable me, that I shall not be in any way prevented 
 from carrying out the orders of the doctor who has 
 saved my life, and returning here for the winter." 
 
 "My dearest Alfred " exclaimed the Princess, 
 and approached him with outstretched arms. But he, 
 like no prince, but a very unmannerly young man, 
 evaded her embrace and disappeared into his cabin. 
 
 212
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 IN the short time that remained of his aunt's visit, 
 Alfred showed what the Princess described to 
 her companion as a thoroughly nice spirit. 
 "Considering," as she said, "that we had something 
 very like a little tiff." He devoted hours every day to 
 her entertainment, made all arrangements himself, 
 and took immense trouble about the details of a rath- 
 er lengthy expedition to Lake Bonaparte, the spot 
 which the Princess desired, of all the mountain region, 
 principally to see. It came off without a hitch. The 
 Princess found the place profitable both for its 
 beauty and its moral. 
 
 "When one reflects that here, in this lonely and 
 primitive retreat, a would-be king found peace to 
 meditate upon the reverses that attend a too vaulting 
 ambition, one is touched," she said handsomely, "one 
 is touched to the heart. Poor, unhappy Joseph Bona- 
 parte !" 
 
 The Princess enjoyed it immensely and talked of 
 the ill-fated family most of the way back. She was 
 never quite convinced, she said, that we in England 
 
 213
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 had not treated the ill-fated family's ill-fated head 
 with greater severity than was really necessary; and 
 Dr. Morrow abandoned every belief he held about 
 the matter, because he could not find himself, with 
 any comfort, in agreement with this lady upon any, 
 subject. The doctor fragrantly declared that in his 
 opinion Napoleon deserved all that came to him. He 
 was an odd man in many ways, Dr. Morrow. 
 
 Mr. Lanchester had immediately placed his house 
 at the disposal of the party for the exploration of 
 Old Loon Lake, and a day was fixed. That was the 
 single occasion on which the Princess was compelled 
 to own to overfatigue and excuse herself. With that 
 one exception the way she entered into everything was 
 astonishing. Lady Althea went to represent her, and 
 the Princess openly lamented the loss of so delightful 
 a party; but her nephew took bitter counsel over the 
 incident. 
 
 "If it had been a female Lobengula, with rings 
 in her nose, she would have gone," he said wrath- 
 fully, in his first moment of privacy. This was what 
 his Aunt Georgina would have called tiresome of 
 him, as he must have known that the ladies of his 
 Family did not ordinarily return visits, and the claims 
 of a female Lobengula would have been quite special. 
 But by now there was no longer any doubt that 
 Alfred was in love. 
 
 The world was aware in an unofficial way, that 
 
 214
 
 'HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Princess Georgina with a lady-in-waiting was in the 
 act of a visit to the interesting patient at Colson's 
 Point; and Dr. Morrow began to complain of the 
 telephone at Sumach. There was no telephone at 
 the camp; he had seen to that. The idea had per- 
 haps got about that if the Prince was well enough 
 to enjoy a visit from relatives he was well enough to 
 contribute something to the entertainment of the 
 American reading public. Dr. Morrow was com- 
 pelled to sit up the greater part of one night in the 
 composition of what he called another coat for the 
 wolves. It kept them off for the time, however. No 
 reporters appeared. The doctor had not yet an- 
 nounced the completion of the cure. He asked the 
 newspapers, like good fellows, to wait for that; and 
 they did. 
 
 The Princess Georgina had suffered much from 
 reporters, and one of the pleasures of her life was 
 to outwit them. To this end, while it was generally 
 understood that she was to return from New York 
 by the Magnific, she quietly arranged to sail from 
 Montreal by the Empress of the Seas, where she 
 would be met and seen off, entirely in the manner of 
 a happy thought, by her brother at Ottawa. "My 
 brother at Ottawa," the Princess always called the 
 Duke, and those to whom she spoke felt pleased and 
 grateful. All but Dr. Morrow, who would hardly 
 have been won if she had referred to the reigning 
 
 215
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland as my nephew 
 Jack. To further confound the newspapers, the 
 Princess decided against the express, and in favor 
 of a slow train. She said with truth that she would 
 be able to see much more of the country, and Lady 
 Althea would be much less likely to be sick. 
 
 The ladies with their maids were to make the 
 journey alone; it would be quite an adventure, as 
 the Princess said. Colonel Vandeleur, who was again 
 to have escorted them, had strangely contracted 
 mumps, and was in quarantine. "How he has man- 
 aged to do it in this air," commented the Princess, 
 with some displeasure, "passes my comprehension," 
 and walked herself carefully round the shack in 
 which the unhappy Vandy was confined. The Prin- 
 cess, especially away from home, would always be 
 satisfied. Vandy waved his farewells sadly through 
 the window. 
 
 So when No. 99, Mixed Accommodation, steamed 
 into the station at Moose Lick, there were upon the 
 platform besides the ladies and their maids, only 
 His Royal Highness, Prince Alfred, Mr. Henry Lan- 
 chester and Dr. Morrow. Abe and Riley cannot be 
 counted, as they were obliged to stay with the teams. 
 Dr. Morrow had ordered a "drawing-room" com- 
 partment; Mr. Lanchester brought some marvelous 
 roses, also commanded from New York. The ex- 
 President did not share Dr. Morrow's antipathy to 
 
 216
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 the Princess. "She has her little ways," he said, "but 
 she takes the world with a high hand. I'm delighted 
 to have come in contact with her" ; and the roses were 
 a tribute of perfect sincerity. The unexpected flowers 
 gave pleasure to the Princess; if looks could express 
 it, they gave even more to Alfred. He sought in the 
 toilet-room himself for a glass of water for them, and 
 pulled out the little side table to stand them on. In 
 the bustle of settling in nobody but Lady Althea no- 
 ticed how gently he touched their petals. The Prin- 
 cess at once had the window down, and Alfred busied 
 himself for her comfort, disposed of her dressing-bag, 
 hunted out her salts, and found the copy of the 
 Spectator which she had been reading on the voyage 
 over, and had not finished. Dr. Morrow and Mr. 
 Lanchester, on the platform, responded to parting 
 compliments through the window. For the second 
 time Her Royal Highness embraced her nephew. 
 
 "And now, dearest Alfie, I think you must get off." 
 
 "I assure you, Auntie George, there's loads of 
 time. Where is your lavender water? I know you 
 never go a yard by train without your lavender 
 water." 
 
 The lavender water was found, and the Princess 
 launched once more into appreciation of Alfred's 
 thoughtfulness. 
 
 "But now, darling boy, you really must get off," 
 she told him. "Dr. Morrow, lay your commands 
 
 217
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 upon him. He must, mustn't he? Good-by once 
 more, my dearest Alfred, and do go." 
 
 Prince Alfred, looking out behind his aunt, sent Dr. 
 Morrow a look. The doctor took out his watch. 
 
 "Three minutes more," he said cheerfully. "Are 
 you quite sure, madam, that you have that prescrip- 
 tion for lumbago?" The Princess searched in her 
 velvet bag. 
 
 Number 99, Mixed Accommodation, gave a slight 
 but meaning jerk, and began slowly to move. 
 
 "Alfred!" cried his aunt. 
 
 "Only shunting," said the incorrigible Morrow, 
 with his eyes on Alfred's face. 
 
 "I say " began Mr. Lanchester. "Are you sure 
 of that, Morrow?" 
 
 But Number 99 had quickened noticeably, and 
 was fast getting into what, for her, was pace, and 
 pace with definite intention. The Princess disap- 
 peared for a moment; then her head came through 
 the window and both hands wildly waving. Then the 
 train rounded a curve and was rapidly lost to view. 
 
 "May I ask whether that was the intention?" asked 
 Mr. Lanchester of the doctor, on the platform. 
 
 "It wasn't mine," said he. 
 
 "Then what, in the name of common sense, is he up 
 to?" 
 
 "I don't know what he's up to," replied the doc- 
 tor. "But I'm backing him anyhow." His face had 
 
 218
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 all the complicity of a schoolboy in the prank of 
 another. 
 
 "We'll consult the timetable and find out the first 
 stop," Lanchester said. "Shall you send Abe, or go 
 yourself? Or can I be of any use?" 
 
 "My dear chap, I shall neither send Abe, nor go 
 myself, and I'd rather you weren't of any use, thanks 
 all the same. Abe will put up his team and wait 
 around till the Prince comes back or wires that's 
 as much as I'm going to do to interfere with him. 
 Come over and have lunch, will you?" 
 
 "Don't you feel the least anxiety?" 
 
 "Not a mite. I know my young man. There's 
 Abe. I'll instruct him. Are you coming?" 
 
 "Why yes, thanks, I think I am," said Lanchester, 
 but he looked concerned ; and as they drove away into 
 the woods behind Riley his glance traveled more 
 than once to the railway line, as if he expected to see 
 Number 99 reappear. 
 
 That, however, was placing too much confidence iri 
 the Princess Georgina's high hand with the world. 
 In the drawing-room car there was no commotion 
 until the gathered momentum of the train put an end 
 to all supposition that it was moving for its own 
 convenience from track to track. Alfred, then, to 
 excitement from the ladies, got up and hurried to 
 the platform of the car, but was rapidly overtaken 
 by Lady Althea, who clung to his arm with high 
 
 219
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 and terrified protests. The Princess, too, left her 
 seat and followed; but it was only to express ex- 
 treme annoyance. 
 
 "Althea, I beg of you, cease that silly shrieking. 
 Of course he can't get off with the train moving at 
 this rate. I will have it sent back." 
 
 "I'm afraid we can't," her nephew informed her. 
 
 "Oh yes, we can." The Princess rang, and sank 
 again into her seat. After a moment or two and 
 not less, a negro porter entered, in a spotless white 
 coat and all the dignity of his kind. 
 
 "Will you please stop the train?" said the Prin- 
 cess briefly. "This gentleman has been carried on 
 by mistake." 
 
 "No, Mam. Dis here's a passenger train, she 
 ain't no trolley. She don't stop now short o' Cas- 
 cade. The gentleman kin get out thar if he want to." 
 
 It is possible that if the porter had known whom 
 he was addressing he might have used other terms, 
 though there is no way of vouching for it. The 
 Princess had one imperative impulse to tell him, 
 but caught Lady Althea's eye in time. Not for this 
 had she outwitted the reporters of New York. 
 Neither was she bandying words with the creature 
 before her. 
 
 "You may go," she said; but authority in a white 
 coat was not going, at that moment. He began to 
 dust the chair backs. 
 
 220
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Want I should send the newspape' boy?" 
 
 "You may go," repeated the Princess. 
 
 "I know I may, but I got to do my business," the 
 porter replied, and slapped a cloud out of a plush 
 seat. "You seem to bin lettin' a lot o' cinders in at 
 that there winder. I got to git it up." 
 
 "Don't touch that window," said Alfred, "and 
 make yourself scarce, will you?" 
 
 "Got to git it up." 
 
 The fat person of the negro was already leaning 
 across Lady Althea and negotiating the catches o 
 the window. It was fat but it could not have been 
 muscular, otherwise Prince Alfred could not have 
 expressed his feelings as he did. With one stride he 
 seized the porter by the collar of his spotless coat, 
 jerked him back from the window, and with a well- 
 aimed kick sent him flying through the door of the 
 coupe into his own linen closet, which happened to 
 be open just outside. He went with such single in- 
 tention that his spotless coat remained in Alfred's 
 hand, and had to be thrown after him. 
 
 "He won't trouble us again," said Alfred, and he 
 didn't. He went instead to confer with the second 
 waiter of the restaurant car, who advised him, after 
 consideration, not to take out a summons for as- 
 sault, on the ground that whoever the parties in the 
 drawing-room might or might not be, they was sut- 
 t'nly some folks. 
 
 221
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Meanwhile the Princess and Lady Althea, rather 
 humbled by the sudden explosion of the irate male, 
 had found it providential that Alfred had been car- 
 ried off in the train. 
 
 "These things never happen," observed his Aunt 
 Georgina, "without a purpose. The man might 
 have given us a great deal of annoyance. But how, 
 Alfred, will you get away from this Cascade place?" 
 
 He took a timetable from his pocket and consulted 
 it, she was long afterwards to declare, as if he had 
 never seen it before. 
 
 "There's a train back in half an hour," he told 
 her, but did not say, as she was later to remember, 
 that he would travel by it. "Morrow will leave one 
 of the teams, I know he will. I'll be all right." 
 
 "The doctor will hardly leave the station himself 
 until you return, Alfred," she rebuked him mildly. 
 "He seems to be rather a character, but I can't im- 
 agine him doing that. Well, it is not, dear boy, as 
 I could have approved if it had been in any way fore- 
 seen; but as it is I shall immensely enjoy another 
 hour of your company." 
 
 With which and no further ado, Her Royal High- 
 ness removed her bonnet, put on a comfortable travel- 
 ing mutch, and opened her Spectator.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 WELL, Prince, what did you think of the me- 
 tropolis of Cascade?" asked Doctor Mor- 
 row next morning at breakfast. 
 
 Alfred usually lunched out of doors and dined 
 alone with Vandy, but always breakfasted with the 
 doctor, who then looked him over for the day. 
 Vandy being still in bed, the two were alone. 
 
 "Nice little town," said Alfred cheerfully. "I 
 spent two or three hours there, strolling about, very 
 pleasantly. Got my hair cut." 
 
 "Find anything to eat there?" 
 
 "Didn't want anything to eat. We lunched on the 
 train." 
 
 "You don't seem to want much this morn- 
 ing. What's the matter with that mush, High- 
 ness?" 
 
 "Nothing the matter with it. Yes, there is the 
 color. I hate yellow things to eat, doctor." 
 
 "Ought to be finished, Prince. Try a bigger 
 spoon. I'll let you off with one sausage. Cascade 
 isn't one of our show-places ; but if you wanted to get 
 
 223
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 your hair cut there, there's a shorter way than by 
 rail, you know." 
 
 "So Abe told me, coming home up the North 
 Arm and along Mud Creek and then across. But I 
 shouldn't have had the pleasure of going with my 
 aunt," said Alfred. "And the creek isn't always 
 good, Abe says." 
 
 "Sure to be, this time of year and after the rain 
 we had in September. Not that I've ever tried 
 it, but I don't do much business in Cascade," the doc- 
 tor told him. "It's a burg I generally pass by. I 
 wonder how the ladies are getting on at Montreal?" 
 
 "They'll be quite all right," said Alfred. "Major 
 Winter, of my uncle's Staff, was to meet them at 
 Utica on the quiet, and my uncle himself and one of 
 the other fellows at Montreal. I have no anxiety." 
 
 "No," said Doctor Morrow, giving him a thought- 
 ful glance; "you don't look as if you had. Feeling 
 fine, eh? With the nerves a little on the outside, I 
 think'. A quiet day, please." 
 
 "All right. I can have Abe, I suppose. I want 
 to send him over to the Lanchesters with a note." 
 
 "Have him by all means, son; but you won't find 
 Henry Lanchester. He's gone to New York to-day 
 about that absurd mine of his; won't be back till 
 Wednesday." 
 
 "Oh, is he? Really. Thanks for telling me. 
 But I think I'll have Abe all the same, doctor; and 
 
 224
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 afterwards I want him to go to Moose Lick with a 
 telegram. You said I might have anybody I wanted 
 now, and I'm wiring for a friend of mine named 
 Youghall, a man I knew at Oxford. That's all right, 
 isn't it?" 
 
 "Why, of course. You'll find Abe cutting up veni- 
 son, I think, out back. We run on low gear, though, 
 to-day, please. It's a long hill, you know, Prince." 
 
 They got up to leave the table, and, as they went 
 through the door together, Alfred's arm slipped 
 around the shoulders of his physician. "You don't 
 know how much I owe you, Doctor." 
 
 "Humbug," said Morrow. "It's the other way." 
 
 Alfred went to his own quarters and wrote his 
 note. It was addressed to Hilary in his irregular, 
 careful hand that formed every letter and no more, 
 and though it seemed to be important he wrote it only 
 once. There was no delay about the writing of it, 
 because he had put everything ready beforehand, 
 even to candle, wax and seal, and he chose his best 
 notepaper to write upon. Then, for a protection 
 against Abe's fingers, he cast about him and found 
 a piece of clean brown wrapping paper. Hilary, 
 when she received and read it, put it tenderly back 
 into the clean brown paper, and there she keeps it to 
 this day. 
 
 They met the next morning at ten o'clock, one as 
 punctual as the other, on the near side of the portage 
 
 225
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 to Old Loon Lake. Hilary walked across, leaving 
 her canoe. She was dressed in her roughest and 
 oldest of short tweed coats and skirts Alfred had 
 said an "expedition" rather shabby brown boots 
 and a little soft green hat that knocked into any 
 shape over her eyes. But for her lovely face and 
 the spirit in it she might have been a wandering 
 tree. 
 
 They waved and called; he paddled close; and 
 she got in upon her cushion in the bows, he holding 
 the canoe steady with his paddle. 
 
 "This is splendid," he said, but pushed off with- 
 out a word of the explanation she was waiting for. 
 
 She searched his face for it, and saw a growing 
 satisfaction as the water quickly widened between 
 the canoe and the shore. But something else was 
 there, something new. She wondered. "Why so 
 fast?" she asked him. 
 
 "We have a long way to go," he told her. 
 
 "You said rather a special expedition," she said, 
 "but I didn't gather that it would be a long one." 
 
 "I'm afraid it will take most of the day." 
 
 "Then I'm afraid," said Hilary, "that I can't go." 
 
 "You will when you know," he told her. "You'll 
 feel that you must. It will be your duty, you know." 
 
 "Please stop paddling and tell me." 
 
 "I'll tell you, but I won't stop paddling. Have you 
 ever been to Cascade?" 
 
 226
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Never in my life. There's nothing to do at Cas- 
 cade." 
 
 "There is to-day." 
 
 She looked at him puzzled, and out of a certain 
 timidity that rose in her she said, "How is Colonel 
 Vandeleur?" 
 
 "In bed," said Alfred. He, too, seemed willing 
 to gain time. "You never saw such a jaw," he told 
 her. "We exchanged a few words this morning 
 through the window; Vandy's were mostly bad ones." 
 
 "Oh !" She laughed, but could think of no more 
 to say. 
 
 Nor apparently could he, except about the great 
 matter which filled his mind and before which she 
 was already troubled without knowing one word of 
 it. He kept silent for another moment. Then he 
 plunged. 
 
 "Do you know what my aunt came over for? 
 That's a silly question, because you couldn't. She 
 came with instructions to get me out of Morrow's 
 hands and back to Europe as quickly as it could be 
 done." 
 
 "I was sure of it!" exclaimed Hilary. 
 
 "I've been given my orders and in such a form 
 that I can't disregard them. I must go. It's too 
 beastly, but I must. Morrow, who knows all about 
 it, has written for passages for us on the twentieth." 
 
 "Next Tuesday!" 
 
 227
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Yes. But there is something more. I am not 
 only to go back at once, but I am also to go back 
 in order to become engaged to be married I He 
 looked at her as if he had exploded a bombshell 
 before her, but she made no special sign. "Hil," 
 he appealed simply, "doesn't that distress you?" 
 
 "If if it distresses you, it does. But I have al- 
 ways known it would have to come," she said. 
 
 He should have made some gesture of tragic in- 
 dignation, but all he did was to throw his cap into the 
 bottom of the canoe and rumple his hair. 
 
 "I believed that I could stand out against any- 
 thing of the sort because of my lungs," he told her. 
 "But Morrow, dear old chap, gives me a clean bill 
 of health. That would be all right, but unfortunately 
 he gave it to my aunt sort of accidentally; but there 
 you are, you know. The fact is, Hilary," said Prince 
 Alfred wretchedly, "I'm awfully well, and old Perry 
 will find it out in about ten seconds when I get 
 home." , 
 
 "You can't expect me," said Hilary, "to be sorry 
 for that." 
 
 "And Colorado? And all we were going to do?" 
 
 Before the reproach in his eyes she looked away, 
 out on the water. 
 
 "There is that. I'm awfully sorry about Colorado. 
 But perhaps you will feel differently, now that you are 
 well, and will find a great future over there. I think 
 
 228
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 it is quite likely that I shall have interesting things to 
 do, too, in my own country. My father will almost 
 certainly consent to nomination again, and, if he 
 does, the people will make him president. And he 
 depends a great deal upon me." 
 
 There was a curious aloofness in her tone. It 
 was almost as if she wished to assert some dignity 
 or to impress him with some circumstance with which 
 he had nothing to do she, Hilary! 
 
 But he caught at it. "All the better!" he cried; 
 "I do hope he will. But, Hil," he said gently, "you 
 care a little about me, too, don't you?" 
 
 She, who a moment ago would teach him how 
 little she cared, said honestly, "I don't think I ought 
 to let you ask me that, but of course I do, Alfred. 
 YOU shouldn't ask me either. You know." 
 
 Alfred reflected. He did know. It was the hap- 
 piest, openest secret between them, this thing that 
 they never talked about, and had been for weeks. 
 But he had to be careful. "You don't ask who it is 
 that my brother John and my Aunt Georgina and 
 the Foreign Office and a few other people want me 
 to marry," he said. 
 
 "Because I've heard. It's Sophy," she told him; 
 "and and you are awfully lucky, Alfred." 
 
 "My aunt told you!" Hilary nodded, and now 
 he could see that in spite of all she could do her eyes 
 were full of tears. "I see. My aunt has always got 
 
 229
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 some game on," he said in a tone of anger. "I see," 
 he repeated, and indeed he did see. 
 
 "And I know from Sophy too. I heard from her 
 yesterday. She has found out from her mother, and 
 she is almost in despair " 
 
 "About having me! There's some other fellow!" 
 
 Alfred's face glowed with such radiant hope that 
 Hilary answered with a little peal of rather un- 
 steady laughter. "There's the Archduke Karl Sal- 
 vator, who is scientific and socialistic and whom she 
 loves desperately, poor Sophy ! And the Kaiser won't 
 hear of it and prefers you." 
 
 "The blighter!" breathed Prince Alfred "But 
 that's a great relief to me, Hil ; not that it would mat- 
 ter unless I know the women of that family. They 
 always do as they're told. The Austrian lot are very 
 different. And I know just the amount of pressure 
 I would have to resist if I went home and it were 
 possible for me to marry. That's why, if you 
 will help me, dear Hil, I mean to make it impos- 
 sible." 
 
 "How?" She turned startled eyes on him. 
 
 "By being married already to you," he delivered. 
 "That is what we are going to do in Cascade." 
 
 He had all the air of proposing to her a supreme 
 and delightful escapade, and she managed to con- 
 trol her pounding heart sufficiently to rebuke him. 
 
 "You shouldn't say wild, impossible things, that 
 
 230
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 .we ought not even to think," she told him. "I am 
 not going to Cascade." 
 
 "I am," he said, and in fact they had already 
 turned into the North Arm. 
 
 "You are dreaming," she said, with her eyes on 
 the strokes of his paddle. "So am I. Presently 
 we shall both wake up," and for a moment neither 
 of them spoke. 
 
 Alfred spoke with more resolution than he felt 
 quite sure of. At any moment she might bid him 
 take the canoe back over the way they had come, and 
 he knew that if she did so bid him he would be 
 obliged to obey. "I can't talk and paddle," he said, 
 and sent the canoe gliding under the boughs of a 
 spreading cedar. 
 
 Then he laid his paddle across his knees, and, 
 leaning over it with his chin propped in his hands, 
 he addressed her seriously: 
 
 "You see, Hil dear, there's only one thing to con- 
 sider: either it's your duty or it's not your duty. 
 That's the way I've been brought up to look at things. 
 Now I don't want to make any special claim on you, 
 Hil, but it's plain that I'm a human being, a fellow- 
 being, in a most awful hole. And there's your friend 
 Sophy she's in a hole too." 
 
 He paused, and she nodded. 
 
 "Now see what you can do by just marrying me 
 this morning and I've arranged everything. It 
 
 231
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 was absolutely nothing but to fill out a paper names, 
 ages, occupation, and so forth which I've got with 
 me. The clerk will do all the rest fellow called a 
 recorder; won't take ten minutes once we're there." 
 At this he looked a little anxiously at his watch. "See 
 what you can do, Hil. You can make this ridiculous 
 marriage between me and Sophia Sternburg-Hofstein 
 impossible, and so save two lives from shipwrecking 
 each other." Some of these expressions Alfred had 
 not improbably thought of beforehand. "Two lives, 
 Hilary. You put everything on the rails again for 
 Colorado, because as a married man they wouldn't 
 have any particular use for me at home and there 
 wouldn't be half so much opposition to my coming 
 back; and in the long run everything would come per- 
 fectly right. Don't you see that it would ? And, Hil, 
 dear, I don't mind telling you I've depended on you 
 in this. I don't see," he added finally, "how you can 
 get out of it." 
 
 Hilary listened gravely. Somewhere in the back 
 of her mind laughter was stirring, but all that 
 her heart would allow her was a tender little smile. 
 
 "It can't be my duty to make it impossible for you 
 to do yours," she said. 
 
 He threw up his head, galled in an old place. 
 "Well if you take that line if you agree but 
 you don't, you can't, over here ! That was the very 
 thing I counted on to make you do it." 
 
 232
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Was it, Alfred?" 
 
 He had hunched his knees under his chin and was 
 looking at her over them, suddenly forlorn, dismayed. 
 Something that was there before, something eager 
 and sure, had died out of his face. She saw it die 
 and it hurt her. His happy confidence had faded; 
 she would not join hands with him in this enterprise. 
 If it had only been something something reasonable 
 that she could do for him ! 
 
 "You see, Hil, darling, I'm only asking you to do 
 this provisionally, you know; I mean, as a provision 
 only to give me a claim to you. Later, when I 
 can afford to marry, we can have it all done properly, 
 with the parson and bridesmaids and everything else 
 you can name. And I don't mind telling you that I'm 
 surprised that you don't see it, not only as a duty, but 
 as a very plain duty. You oughtn't to put self first 
 in a matter of this kind, Hilary you oughtn't in- 
 deed." 
 
 "Alfred," she told him reproachfully, "if anyone 
 else had said that I should find it funny." 
 
 "He looked a little hurt. "It isn't as if you dis- 
 liked me, Hil." 
 
 Oh, her Prince her Prince ! It was not, indeed. 
 She looked at him with wide, tearful eyes, and her 
 graver grounds for opposing him melted away before 
 her sudden demand that he should ask this thing of 
 her in another fashion. 
 
 233
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Alfred!" she half sobbed. "You you tell me 
 it's my duty. But why should I marry any more 
 than you for such a reason as that?" 
 
 Their eyes met over this posing question and clung 
 together. 
 
 "But don't you love me?" he asked again. She 
 did not reply, and he got up carefully in his place 
 holding by a low branch of the cedar. 
 
 "Hil, I am going to kiss you," he said. 
 
 It was not an easy thing to do from the bottom 
 of the canoe at her feet, but he did it and not once 
 only. Far from repelling him Hilary stroked his 
 hair. 
 
 "You love me and yet you won't marry me," he 
 argued with that advantage. 
 
 "But you don't seem to expect anything like that 
 to to to influence me," she expostulated. 
 
 "It was my reason," he told her, "of course. But 
 I thought you would prefer duty. One ought, you 
 know. Please, Hil, darling, may I kiss your eyes?" 
 
 "We shall upset!" she cried, but they did not up- 
 set. He scrambled dutifully and successfully back to 
 his place and took up his paddle. Now may we go to 
 Cascade?" he asked, as one who, not without some 
 trouble, has made his point. 
 
 But Hilary shook her head. 
 
 "I would just love to," she said, "but I I daren't, 
 Alfred. Not for myself. I'm not afraid, even of 
 
 234
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 dungeons ! But it's the undreamed-of harm I might 
 be doing you." 
 
 "Harm!" he cried. "Little you know! I won't 
 discuss that, Hilary." 
 
 She brought the great reason out with curious shy- 
 ness. 
 
 "You know who you are," she said. There was an 
 instant of almost religious silence, and then he leaned 
 forward earnestly. 
 
 "Hil, you, too, have known great position, great 
 people, great ways of doing. Perhaps, to those who 
 like that sort of thing, it's worth a good deal. But 
 is it worth everything? I'm not much of a chap, 
 but you happen to like me. Now if you could go to 
 a Colorado ranch with me, or back to the White 
 House in Washington without me, which would you 
 choose?" 
 
 "You against an Empire," she cried, smiling 
 through her wet lashes. 
 
 He dipped his paddle triumphantly. 
 
 "I knew it. Now, may we go to Cascade?" 
 
 "No, Alfred no!" 
 
 "Hil can you honorably throw me over, re- 
 membering I've depended on you?" 
 
 Throw him over ! 
 
 For another long moment she hesitated. She sat 
 looking at him, bright-eyed, her elbows on her knees, 
 her face on her clasped hands, and twenty questions 
 
 235
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 trembling on her lips. Then she looked out upon 
 the sunlit water and laughed, and threw all away. 
 He had depended on her ! "Yes !" she said gloriously 
 to fate and to Alfred: "No, I can't. No, I won't. 
 Yes, let us go to Cascade." 
 
 And they went. The sun shone on them all the 
 way, and there was a following breeze to help the 
 paddle that never wearied. 
 
 They found the rheumatic old recorder in the act 
 of making the first fire of the season in a box stove 
 of ancient pattern, and his mind much occupied with 
 the grievance that his supply of logs had been cut 
 too long. He kept them waiting while he showed 
 them how the logs smoked at one end and stuck out 
 through the door at the other. 
 
 Then he married them under the Statute of the 
 state of New York, putting on his spectacles to ex- 
 amine the license. The bridegroom's declaration 
 had been easy. He was Alfred Wettin, and his 
 father was John Wettin. He was born in Lon- 
 don, England, and his occupation was "prospective 
 settler." 
 
 Hilary, over "residence," was uncertain; Alfred 
 had filled in "Baltimore, Ohio," where he knew she 
 was born. "We live in so many places," she de- 
 murred. 
 
 "Whar does your pa pay taxes?" asked the recorder 
 with his eye on the stove. 
 
 236
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Oh in Baltimore, Ohio," she said, so that "resi- 
 dence" remained. 
 
 "You've come a long way to get married," the 
 recorder told her, using the blotter with his palsied 
 hand, but he did not know how far, the old man. 
 
 "I sa^" said Alfred to his wife when the brief mat- 
 ter was concluded; "do you mind waiting while 
 I make his fire burn?" 
 
 So she did, taking a very humble chair for a 
 Princess, and Alfred applied himself to the box stove 
 until it roared. 
 
 It was not perhaps a bad beginning, the tending 
 of another's fire. Hilary watched it with happy eyes. 
 "Oh/ Alfred," she said as they went down the 
 steps to the sidewalk, thick with autumn leaves, "I'm 
 not sorry I'm not sorry! You're a very human 
 being!" 
 
 They bought crackers and cheese at a grocer's 
 shop, and left their certified license with the town 
 clerk, and made all haste back. But the sun was low 
 when they started, and the long lanes among the 
 pines and the maples were already misty and purple. 
 They made all haste, and Hilary took a paddle too; 
 but evening had descended before he left her at her 
 father's door, and would not come in to supper, 
 though she shyly asked him to. 
 
 "No," he said, "we've only taken a precaution, 
 Hil; you mustn't let me forget that. I'm quite as 
 
 237
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 happy as I need be for a while. If I came in, you 
 see, I might be too happy to go away." 
 
 "Good night, then," she said quickly, and gave him 
 her cheek to kiss, 
 
 But self-denial has its limits, and he kissed her 
 at his own pleasure. "Good night, my wife. It was 
 splendid of you, Hil. I'll see your father to-morrow," 
 he said. "Let me tell him. Dear old Youghall will 
 be there when I get back. He must know, too. I 
 want him to help me later." 
 
 "Yes," said Hilary. "Oh, yes. You shall tell him. 
 But nobody else, Alfred. Nobody else in the whole 
 world, until I consent. You promise?" 
 
 He promised once again and then he went. 
 
 Hilary stood in the door and watched him go. A 
 lantern tied to a stake at the landing-place shone upon 
 him and his canoe for a moment; and with one 
 backward wave at her, he shot out over the dark 
 glass of the lake. She went in, then, and looked 
 at the clock, and found that the memorable hour 
 was six. He had gone away, into the future, at 
 six. 
 
 That line of the clock hands, cutting time and the 
 world in two, was always to stay with her. It was 
 her first moment of escape from the magic of their 
 adventure. She sat down in it to try, as she told 
 herself, to "realize" what she had been led to do ; but 
 the only thing she quite realized was the wish that 
 
 238
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 her father was there. After a while she went out and 
 sat in the warm, bright kitchen with Bertha. . . . 
 
 And he, her Prince, made good way to the por- 
 tage where Abe was waiting, and hailed Abe cheerily. 
 Riley wasn't back from Moose Lick with his pas- 
 senger when Abe left; he would be by now. 
 
 As Abe paddled in, Alfred saw the solitary figure 
 of Youghall in the light of his own window, pacing 
 and waiting. 
 
 He leaped from the canoe, shouting greetings. 
 "My dear old chap, this is top hole ! Absolutely rip- 
 ping ! Bumped you to pieces, I expect, getting here ; 
 the road's in a shocking state. It's good to see you, 
 old man; no end lucky you could cornel" 
 
 "Naturally I could come," said Youghall, half 
 stopping to look at him. "But what what have 
 they done to you over here? You're not the same 
 man." 
 
 "Another chap yes, aren't I?" Alfred responded 
 joyously. 'I tell you, Youghall, Morrow's some 
 doctor." 
 
 "You've even learned American," gasped Youg- 
 hall. 
 
 "Have I? Well, that's all right." With his hand 
 under his friend's elbow, Alfred had been hurrying 
 him toward his own quarters. Almost pushing him 
 in, he shut the door and faced gloriously round upon 
 him. 
 
 239
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Congratulate me, Youghall. I've just married 
 Hilary Lanchester." 
 
 Youghall sat down upon the first thing that was 
 convenient. "You've just married a girl," he re- 
 peated slowly. 
 
 "No; not any old girl. I've just married Hilary 
 Lanchester." 
 
 "I I see," said Youghall. 
 
 "Congratulate me, old chap," insisted Alfred, slap- 
 ping him on the shoulder. 
 
 "Oh, I do I do congratulate you," said Youghall 
 hastily. "She seemed everything that could be de- 
 sired. But dear man, how will you ever bring it 
 off?" 
 
 "I have brought it off," Prince Alfred told him. 
 "If you had been a bit earlier you might have been 
 best man." 
 
 He sat, flushed and triumphant, on the edge of his 
 writing-table and twisted his legs under it. Youg- 
 hall got up and looked as if he would never sit again. 
 He folded his arms against the astonishing news and 
 stood looking at the floor. 
 
 "The girl I took the button to," he said, not with- 
 out a feeling of complicity. 
 
 "Yes; old man; you did me a good turn that time. 
 I don't mind telling you that I've found out she's 
 worn it ever since," he added shyly. "Oh, Youg- 
 hall, she's she's glorious!" 
 
 240
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "The daughter of the ex-President!" 
 
 "You'll identify her after a while," laughed Al- 
 fred. "Look here, Youghall, let me give you a piece 
 of advice. Marry the girl you're in love with, and 
 nobody else! Make a point of it," he added joy- 
 ously. 
 
 "Thanks very much," said Youghall absently, "I 
 will if occasion arises. But that has nothing" his 
 eyes wandered in their consternation to the table. 
 "Telegrams," he said. 
 
 There were several rather thick ones marked "For- 
 eign," placed neatly one on top of the other. More 
 than one was addressed to Colonel Vandeleur. 
 
 "They can wait," Alfred told him, vaulting further 
 back. "I've got something more interesting to think 
 about. And, Youghall, here's the rest of it: I go 
 home next week to satisfy them about some silly 
 obligation or other; then I come back by Morrow's 
 orders to winter here; and after that he's going to 
 send me to ranch in Colorado, old man to ranch in 
 Colorado ! That's where Hilary comes in the 
 darling!" 
 
 He was swinging his legs now in the joy of that 
 anticipated freedom, and, having got it all out, he 
 had taken up one of the telegrams while Youghall 
 stared at the floor. "Perhaps there's somebody wait- 
 ing," Alfred said, and tore off the end. 
 
 It was a long telegram. Alfred read a line of 
 
 241
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 two, threw himself off the table, and walked over 
 to the lamp. There with a face that grew more and 
 more changed and charged he finished it. 
 
 "Youghall," he said, "I'm glad you're here. The 
 Victoria went down this morning in a squall, and 
 both my brothers were on board. Every soul was 
 lost. You might open the other telegrams, Youg- 
 hall." 
 
 It was like Youghall that he fell upon the messages 
 with a sound. One was full of details ; another, from 
 the Embassy at Washington, stated what Prince Al- 
 fred should immediately do. There was a message 
 conveying sympathy from the Prime Minister. None 
 had any word of mitigation or relief. Youghall read 
 them through heavily aloud. 
 
 Prince Alfred sat huddled in an armchair and 
 heard. Once or twice he said, "Read that again, will 
 you?" Then he put his hands over his eyes. "Old 
 John!" he said. "Old Vic! Hard luck on those 
 two!" 
 
 Youghall had turned his back and was looking out 
 into the night. Presently he came again, as it were, 
 into the room. He walked with an awkward air of 
 ceremony into the middle of it. 
 
 "Brace up, old man," he said, with the tears run- 
 ning down his face. "You know what this means. 
 I've got to say it: 'Long live the King!' ' 
 
 "I suppose you've got to say it," Alfred repeated 
 
 242
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 mechanically. "Vic, too!" he said. "Vic would 
 have liked it. ... Both. . . . I'm glad you're here, 
 Youghall," he said again. "Morrow's at Sumach. 
 Will you go over and tell Vandeleur? Come back 
 after a little. I must think a bit." 
 
 At the door a consideration struck the King's mes- 
 senger with the force of a bullet. He wheeled 
 around. "And you've married Hilary Lanchester!" 
 he almost shouted. 
 
 Alfred lifted his head. "There is that," he said. 
 "I'm glad to remember that. Thank God I did it in 
 time!"
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 YOU English are the most impossible people 
 on the face of the globe to take for granted," 
 said Abraham Longworth after dinner at 
 Clinton Manners's club in London, to his host and 
 Youghall and the other man who was dining there. 
 "You chop off a King's head for interfering in poli- 
 tics, and for four hundred years you say no fellow 
 that wears the crown of England must know that 
 politics exist, because, if he did, it might happen 
 again. Then a fellow like Alfred comes along and 
 says, Til be King; but I want a man's job as well,' 
 and you're all as pleased as Punch." 
 
 "It's extraordinarily queer that labor, of all things 
 in the world, should have given the King his chance," 
 said the other man; "The last thing you'd expect." 
 "That's what I say: it always is, in these islands, 
 the last thing you'd expect," declared Longworth. 
 "What I want to know is how King Alfred got into 
 this close touch I don't say with labor union mem- 
 bers, but with the unions themselves. Not half an 
 easy thing to negotiate." 
 
 244
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Oh, it's all very informal," Youghall told him; 
 "but it hangs together somehow. There's the sport- 
 ing instinct of the workingmen, and the kingship of 
 the King, and his known keenness on all that these 
 fellows in the mills and arsenals have to do " 
 
 Youghall spoke with a slow Canadian drawl. He 
 was Under Secretary of State for War now, but he 
 had never lost the drawl. It was wonderful climbing 
 for a man of thirty-one, but the New Party still eyed 
 him with confidence rather than with criticism. Man- 
 ners was private secretary to Lord Farwell, Post- 
 master-General. Longworth had returned from Bos- 
 ton, settled down in England and entered the House 
 of Commons the year after Youghall. He, too, be- 
 longed to the New Party, which had been called into 
 existence chiefly by the menace of the industrial situ- 
 ation. These three had been friends at Oxford. The 
 fourth man was Sir Nicholas Henry, a baronet, a 
 mine owner and more of a veteran than the others. 
 
 "I've heard the King picked up a lot of notions 
 that time he was in the States," Manners remarked 
 casually. It was five years and more since the Amer- 
 ican visit and its tragic close. 
 
 "Maybe," Youghall half admitted. "Sir Charles 
 Kitson had a good deal to say to it in the beginning. 
 He saw the chance and saved his own company. He 
 knew the men wouldn't rat once the King had got 
 their word. Then it became fashionable." 
 
 245
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "And now there isn't a union meeting in the north 
 that isn't conducted under his portrait," Manners 
 said. "Do you remember at Oxford, Youghall, 
 how he used to swot at mending his own bicycle?" 
 
 Youghall smiled. For so young a man he was un- 
 communicative, as a rule, but to-night they were all 
 there together more intimately than had happened 
 since the Oxford days. Sir Nicholas was a good fel- 
 low too. "I knew how it would be," Youghall said. 
 "I came over with him, you know, when he had to 
 come." 
 
 "Wasn't he in the woods somewhere when the 
 thing happened?" Sir Nicholas asked. 
 
 "He was in Quebec the next day," said Youghall. 
 "He sailed under the salute of his own proclama- 
 tion. It was a thundering thing for us Canadians 
 happening there, you know. They knocked him to- 
 gether some kind of a Staff in Ottawa, and I came 
 along as a sort of private secretary pro tern. They 
 sent him on the Canadian dreadnaught Iroquois. It 
 was her first commission. I remember our overtak- 
 ing the Empress of the Seas off the Banks " 
 
 "Why do you remember that?" asked Longworth. 
 
 "Oh, nothing; only the Princess Georgina was on 
 board, and I used to think he'd just as soon we did 
 overtake her," said Youghall. 
 
 "Did he talk to you much about things?" asked 
 Manners. 
 
 246
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Now and then. He said once," smiled Youghall, 
 "that he had 'as good a right to work as any man 
 alive.' I believe they've heard that in the unions. 
 It doesn't make him unpopular." 
 
 "Why the dickens doesn't he marry?" asked Long- 
 worth. 
 
 "Ah! that I can't tell you," Youghall said; 
 and, for some minutes after, his close-lipped 
 mouth opened only for the convenience of his 
 pipe. 
 
 "Isn't he known as the 'Hope of Europe' ?" pres- 
 ently asked Sir Nicholas. 
 
 "I hadn't heard," said Youghall. 
 
 "He ought to marry," Longworth insisted. "He's 
 throwing away his best card with the populace the 
 photographs of the children. I wonder the illus- 
 trated press doesn't get a question asked." 
 
 "It looks rather," Manners contributed, "as if 
 lovely woman simply doesn't interest him. I hear 
 there's hardly a petticoat about the court." 
 
 "There's the Princess Georgina's," Sir Nicholas 
 hazarded. 
 
 "As far as that goes," replied Manners discreetly, 
 "yes. But no petticoats with frills; at least so my 
 wife tells me." There was a Lady Biddy Manners 
 who had apparently been complaining. 
 
 "Don't we hear of a lovely lady at Farnborough?" 
 Longworth inquired. "I don't usually talk gossip, 
 
 247
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 but I can't hear the poor fellow deprived of all natu- 
 ral sentiment " 
 
 "There's nothing in that," Manners told him. 
 "She tries hard; that's all." 
 
 "I shouldn't wonder," said Longworth, "if he de- 
 manded to fall in love. He's a queer chap for a 
 king. Were you here, Youghall, for the corona- 
 tion?" 
 
 "Yes," said Youghall. "I've never been away." 
 
 "He made a rather pathetic figure, didn't he? 
 Not a dry eye in the Abbey, and all that sort of 
 thing." 
 
 Youghall took out his pipe to reply, but anybody 
 could get in a sentence before the words came out, 
 and Manners did. 
 
 "He was alone, of course, and young, and not too 
 strong even then," Manners said. "I felt sniffy 
 myself." 
 
 Sir Nicholas Henry pushed back his chair to tip 
 it, dropped his cigar stump into his finger-bowl, and 
 laughed. 
 
 "I was in the Automobile Club in January of last 
 year," he said, "when Amberley dropped in on his 
 way back from being told that the King meant to 
 write his speech from the throne himself. Amber- 
 ley's face was worth seeing; he thought the founda- 
 tions were rocking. I know him very well fagged 
 for him at Eton and he told me what had hap- 
 
 248
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 pened. 'With all respect for the great abilities of 
 my Cabinet,' says the King to Amberley, 'I prefer 
 to express my ideas in my own way. But I shall be 
 delighted to give you the opportunity of correcting 
 the spelling.' He never could stand Amberley; al- 
 ways hated having to send for him. I never saw the 
 old man so hot. 'We'll correct more than the spell- 
 ing,' he said to me of course, not to the King. But 
 I don't know that they did." 
 
 "It was a rattling good speech," said Longworth; 
 "quite prudent, but as personal as a message to 
 Congress." 
 
 "It's just as well the Liberals went out when they 
 did." Manners turned to Sir Nicholas. "He gets 
 on much better with Caversham. Caversham ap- 
 plauds our impulsive Monarch and plays him like 
 any other card. More than once I've heard him 
 say : 'I want to carry the King with us.' ' 
 
 "I believe," Sir Nicholas remarked, neatly remov- 
 ing the tip of his second cigar, "that Caversham en- 
 couraged him in that notion of sending for ministers 
 two or three at a time to discuss things." 
 
 "He told the Chancellor of the Exchequer," said 
 Manners "Have a light, Henry? that he wanted 
 to understand the bills he's got to sign. 'What in 
 the name of the constitution does he want to under- 
 stand 'em for?' Naseby said to my chief. 'That's 
 our business.' But he could make no objection, of 
 
 249
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 course. And now the Cabinet meets at Buckingham 
 Palace rather oftener than in Downing Street. Does 
 business too. Seems to work well enough." 
 
 "It would," remarked Longworth sardonically, 
 "in this country where every known sign and prece- 
 dent's against it." 
 
 "Well, if it pleases him," said Manners, "it's not 
 dangerous, so long as he consents to take only a for- 
 mal part." He looked around as if challenging 
 objection, but none came. 
 
 Longworth ever so slightly shook his head. They 
 sat silent for a moment, thinking of the King. They 
 were all four his trusty lieutenants, and in spite of 
 the spread of socialism, the country was full of just 
 such lieutenants as these. There was a widespread 
 cult of the King. Men liked what they knew of 
 him ; women could never know enough. 
 
 "So long yes," said Longworth finally. "But 
 there's something heady about the King." 
 
 "Let's hope he'll keep it," joked Sir Nicholas. 
 "By the way, he'll be disappointed at the news from 
 Washington." 
 
 "Treaty scotched?" asked Manners, "I haven't 
 seen the evening papers." 
 
 "Gutted with amendments in the usual style. 
 Very disappointing, but I was afraid of the Senate," 
 said the older man. "The President takes it badly, 
 they say." 
 
 250
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Don't believe all that," Longworth advised them. 
 "President Dickinson was never half so hot for it as 
 he got credit for being on this side; too near the 
 end of his term. He'd like it, all right, but he knows 
 as well as anybody that it isn't a practicable move 
 just now. A treaty of arbitration and alliance is the 
 last thing any President of the United States would 
 want to leave in the pot just as he's going out of 
 office. They may be turning the lights on a grand 
 lodge of sorrow at the White House this afternoon, 
 but Dickinson's quite pleased to pickle that cucumber 
 for the next fellow and he's wise." 
 
 "Then it can't come up again before the election," 
 said Manners. 
 
 "It could, but it won't," Longworth said. 
 
 The last sleepy waiter had disappeared behind the 
 screen. The fire, long burning for them alone, had 
 dropped low ; and through the window came a stroke 
 of Big Ben. 
 
 Longworth looked at his watch. "Time for my 
 bye-bye," he told them. "You fellows going back 
 to the House to-night?" 
 
 "I am," said Youghall. 
 
 "Faithful hound!" Longworth thrust his arm 
 affectionately under Youghall's as they made their 
 way to the cloakroom. 
 
 The two were close friends, with a common pol- 
 icy and a point of view from which they looked in 
 
 251
 
 'HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 the same direction and saw the same things. The 
 American was a leader among the younger spirits of 
 his party, yet had already earned the nickname of 
 "Commonsense Longworth," because he made such 
 constant appeal to that quality. 
 
 As they went down the steps together Youghall 
 said: "Who's going to be the next fellow over there, 
 Lengthy?" 
 
 "Do you mean which party will win at the polls?" 
 
 "Which man will win, out of the present lot of 
 likely candidates?" 
 
 "I should say out of the present lot of likely 
 candidates nobody," said Longworth. "This is 
 March. From now till September is the time of fall- 
 ing stars. The fellow who wants to know the planet 
 that will stay must wait. Can I drop you?" He 
 had hailed a taxi. 
 
 "Thanks. I'll walk," Youghall said. "I like this 
 clean, wet wind." 
 
 He turned westward along Pall Mall, still alive 
 and moving with the gleaming, rainy lights of the 
 spring night, though pedestrians were few. At the 
 first pillar box he stopped, unbuttoned his coat and 
 took a rather bulky letter out of the inside pocket 
 of his dress coat. There, since he bestowed it when 
 he left his rooms to dine with Manners, it had 
 made more of a bulge than his tailor would have 
 approved. 
 
 252
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 The letter was addressed in his own handwriting 
 to "Miss Hilary Lanchester," at her father's house 
 in Baltimore, Ohio. It was bulky because it con- 
 tained another, superscribed to "The Hon. Mr. Ar- 
 thur Youghall" at his address in Whitehall Court, 
 in the handwriting of his Sovereign. 
 
 Once every fortnight and no oftener the Unaer 
 Secretary of State for War received such a missive; 
 and always, without further examination, he inclosed 
 it in another envelope and addressed it to Miss 
 Hilary Lanchester, at her father's house in Balti- 
 more, Ohio, or wherever she happened to be. He 
 had now been doing this for a period of a little more 
 than five years. 
 
 Five years had gone years full of storm and 
 trouble and change in Washington no less than in 
 Westminster. Tides of industrial unrest had beaten, 
 and lashed and been calmed only to rise again. Sec- 
 tional interests had threatened the validity of Amer- 
 ican foreign relations and even the integrity of the 
 Union. 
 
 Under it all a short record slept in the books of 
 the clerk of the town of Cascade, in the Algonquin 
 Division of the state of New York, which, if the 
 world had known anything about it, might have 
 added a good deal to the confusion of the time. But 
 it slept undisturbed; the world knew nothing. Spring 
 after spring the horse chestnuts along the sidewalk 
 
 253
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 shook out their leaves, and the pomp of summer 
 passed, and the snow fell upon the roof and steps 
 of the town hall ; and the entry receded farther and 
 farther into files little likely to be sought or searched. 
 The old recorder was dead; and the new appointee, 
 a bustling fellow from a local newspaper, had no 
 spectacles for the past. He bustled till he made the 
 taxpayers put in a furnace. So even the old box 
 stove was gone. 
 
 The thought of crying the record from the house- 
 tops did persistently visit the mind of the chief of the 
 three who knew of it. But Arthur Youghall, who, 
 as we are aware, was close to Alfred during the 
 whole of the ten days that lay between him and the 
 great memorial service in Westminster Abbey for the 
 King and the Prince, whose bodies were never found, 
 had frequent opportunity to convince the young King 
 of the impossibility of such a course. The argu- 
 ments that Youghall used will leap into every mind 
 and need not be told. They were overwhelming. 
 Above them all stood guard Alfred's promise to 
 Hilary; that alone sealed his lips. And presently 
 the high rites and solemn duties of his return began 
 to multiply over the act of that October morning 
 like the clods that fall upon a coffin. 
 
 The record was in the coffin, only the record ; but 
 by the day of his coronation it lay in a grave that 
 was filled. When he thought of it, it was to remem- 
 
 254
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 her how safe things are in a grave and to smile with 
 the knowledge that he had a w r ife alive in the sun 
 to be his one day when they could see their way, when 
 he should prevail And soon after, they would 
 make a splendid, formal, trumpeted visit to the 
 United States, and among the places of interest they 
 would most surely see would be an old castle in the 
 air that hovered over the ranches of Colorado. . . ^ 
 
 And Hilary, from the moment that wonderful 
 mantle of silence fell upon her with Alfred's letter 
 the morning after, moved in it like a young abbess, 
 and kept it unbroken by a whisper even to her 
 father. For that she had authority; often to her- 
 self she cited it, 'Let me tell him.' It was the last 
 thing her Prince had said. Alfred should tell her 
 father when her father should be told, not she. 
 
 But she could not let it be yet; she wrote and 
 begged that it should not be yet. A kind of fear, and 
 the commotion that rose in her breast at the thought 
 of such a tale to him, forbade that Lanchester should 
 know, pushed the telling away until something should 
 happen to make it necessary or harmless. 
 
 What could happen? Well, she might die. She 
 had dreamt sometimes of dying and the world dis- 
 covering then that she had been a queen under the 
 statutes of the state of New York. As time went 
 on, her dying seemed the only simple or probable 
 solution of their strange dilemma. She began in 
 
 255
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 perfect health and very fair spirits, to imagine that 
 she looked forward to it. But it was always, by 
 some ingenious arrangement of circumstances, in Al- 
 fred's arms that she died. 
 
 Greater than the temptation to tell her father 
 which indeed was no temptation, so clothed was it 
 with terrible possibilities of wider disclosure was 
 the temptation to tell Mrs. Phipps. The October 
 days in the woods grew intolerably isolated and re- 
 mote after that sudden chasm had opened in her pri- 
 vate life, and before Alfred had landed in England 
 Hilary was again with her beloved friends in Wash- 
 ington. After that first romantic burst of confidence 
 in June she had barely mentioned Alfred's name to 
 the dear lady of the White House. Perhaps as the 
 matter grew in her bosom it became less of a feather- 
 weight to be tossed about in a letter. Even when 
 the Prince began to see them often at Old Loon 
 Lake she had spoken of him only as fishing with 
 her father. Her letters held him at a distance. 
 
 Mrs. Phipps, for her own peace of mind, let her- 
 self be deceived until her girl came back to her in 
 the autumn. Then with an outward gaiety that 
 noticed nothing she soon mourned in private, for 
 she thought she had learned enough to tell her that 
 Hilary was hopelessly in love with the young man 
 who had already opened Parliament at Westminster 
 in his own person as King of England. 
 
 256
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Happily Hilary would sometimes make a jest of it. 
 
 "Honey," said Mrs. Phipps to her one morning 
 among chiffons, "I am going to marry you this win- 
 ter." The implication was that Mrs. Phipps could 
 wait no longer to choose the trousseau. 
 
 "Not this winter, please," Hilary laughed. "Give 
 me a little longer, darling, for my mourning." 
 
 It was a note that sweetly mocked; there was no 
 trouble in it. Mrs. Phipps was puzzled. "Can there 
 be anything like a flirtation still?" she thought. 
 
 That was Mr. Phipps's last year of office; and 
 their girl stayed with the President and his wife 
 longer than usual, to their great satisfaction. Hilary 
 clung to the White House. She had the newspapers 
 for information and her letters for more intimate 
 support ; but there was something in the wide stair- 
 cases and spacious rooms of this house which had 
 once been her father's that also upheld her in those 
 first few months. Unconsciously she sheltered in its 
 great moral distinction; its walls rose about her a 
 monument greatly achieved and splendidly assured. 
 It was the only place from which she could look with 
 any equanimity across the Atlantic, and she liked to 
 date her letters from it. 
 
 A mysterious agency dropped quantities of Lon- 
 don papers and magazines into her lap. She had to 
 implore it to stop; the very postman was amazed. 
 After the first numbers of the Court Journal, which 
 
 257
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 looked so odd in her bedroom, she had not the cour- 
 age to open it. Youghall wrote to her with great 
 regularity, copious letters, but all too discreet. She 
 had to be satisfied with them every other week. 
 
 Alfred himself never failed. No fortnight passed 
 without his letter; and for long they were full of 
 the Prince she knew. Simple and direct, accounting 
 and explaining, thoughtful and gently loving, she 
 discovered again in his letters her Alfred of their 
 wonderful romance and hopeful always, confident, 
 and full of plans ; hopes and plans that were a little 
 vague, based on the democratic march of the world, 
 and that still in a year were no more than hopes and 
 plans. 
 
 In a year he grew restive, and it was the day after 
 the august ceremonial of his coronation that he first 
 wrote and begged her to come to England. "I am 
 helpless here," he wrote. Perhaps he had not known 
 before that anointing how helpless. "The disposal 
 of our lives is with you." Many of her friends 
 visited England every summer; some of them took 
 houses in town regularly for the season. He could 
 see her if she would come. They could contrive to 
 meet. He argued and entreated; finally in affection- 
 ate but set terms he commanded her to come. 
 
 She had early learned that without the sanction of 
 his House, no English Prince may marry. She never 
 thought of this as undoing that which she herself had 
 
 258
 
 'HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 done, but it made a kind of fairy tale of the history 
 of that day. And she kissed his letters and did not 
 once dream of complying. The mere thought of such 
 an enterprise with its phantoms of claim and surren- 
 der shook her like a leaf; and pride came in to up- 
 hold terror. She was her father's daughter, whoever 
 else she was, and that was honor enough. She would 
 be nothing in secret, and she had not the courage for 
 any acting on that stage. She clung to her father 
 sometimes with a timidity that touched and puzzled 
 him. 
 
 So the time passed with them both. As soon as 
 his strength permitted, the young King-Emperor was 
 prescribed his royal tours. India and the Dominions 
 took natural precedence upon the program of their 
 sovereign; the prospect of an American visit was 
 remote. Still he would come, he told her soon he 
 would come; and then they would at least sit upon 
 gold chairs together again and look into one an- 
 other's eyes. . . . 
 
 That was after he accepted her refusal, and 
 stopped hoping, as he hoped for so long, that one 
 day would show him her face in the crowd or the 
 carriages as he went upon the formal duties of his 
 office. Often then some curve of eyebrow or of lip 
 would send its owner home boasting, "He looked 
 straight at me and smiled." That trick of searching 
 stayed with him long, but at last he lost it. She 
 
 259
 
 HTS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 would not come; she was afraid of the King, afraid 
 of herself afraid. 
 
 He had no great facility with his pen. His let- 
 ters never failed or faltered, but they grew a little 
 gray. He described functions to her and gave her 
 his opinion of public men. Hilary compared them 
 with the published letters of sovereigns, and told her- 
 self that but for a little bit at the beginning and the 
 end, these too might be printed. Her own grew 
 tenderer with the fear at her heart that he was for- 
 getting, but though he forgot nothing he could not 
 respond. He had no skill in phrases. He told her of 
 his life, and he was hers, with love. . . . 
 
 Time passed. In the summer of the presidential 
 campaign before the Phippses left the White House, 
 Henry Lanchester had a critical illness which very 
 nearly left Hilary alone in the world. He rallied 
 in the end splendidly; but it placed him for the 
 time definitely out of the calculations of his friends 
 in politics. The party put up Colonel Dickinson 
 and elected him, a man with a good record and great 
 independence of temper, but no tactician; the sort 
 of president who decides his own future with his 
 first message to Congress. 
 
 Hilary went no more to the White House or to 
 Washington. She lived, as her father's strength re- 
 turned, much in New York, where his business in- 
 terests centered, and a good deal among those people 
 
 260
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 in New York to whom every wave that washes over 
 breaks in authentic gossip of the courts of Europe. 
 In the beginning the newspapers told her of "the 
 boy King." As years went on, the society weeklies 
 chatted to her about "the bachelor King." 
 
 And the time came when she was to hear from 
 a well-informed friend at a ladies' luncheon, choos- 
 ing between a chocolate ice and a pink one, "She has 
 a house near Windsor and they say it is quite well 
 known. Of course he must marry in the end, and 
 personally I have always believed that when it had 
 to be it would be the Hereditary Princess Sophia of 
 Sternburg-Hofstein. She is known to have been 
 waiting for him with a patience; though of course 
 her mother's death and her accession, and all 
 that, in the last two years, have made an ex- 
 cuse to put it off, which he, they say, has jumped 
 at." 
 
 "Poor Sophy!" observed Hilary, "I used to know 
 her at school in Brussels. We still exchange letters 
 at intervals. Not pretty, but a dear." 
 
 "Really? Well, in my opinion you are corre- 
 sponding with the future queen of England. The 
 other isn't pretty either; but she's magnificent. 
 Quite worth staying single for, the Countess Waldo- 
 gradoff; and the longer it lasts the better she'll be 
 pleased, I imagine. They say her influence is much 
 valued in her own country " 
 
 261
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Why doesn't she marry him?" asked Hilary in- 
 nocently. 
 
 "Oh, my dear lamb, she's no class to marry roy- 
 alty! Besides, she's got a husband," said Hilary's 
 entertaining informant, and she turned from such 
 painful lack of sophistication to her other neighbor. 
 
 "I see," said Hilary thoughtfully. She did not 
 believe a word of it not a word, not a word.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 NO one in the Court circle referred more often to 
 King Alfred's lonely state at Buckingham 
 Palace than did the Princess Georgina, 
 Duchess of Altenburg, or in more affecting terms. 
 There seemed to her no reason why a court should not 
 also be a home, or based on one, and it was known 
 among her intimates that nothing that she could do to 
 make it so would be shirked, whatever the weight of 
 responsibility involved to a woman by no means as 
 young as she was. The Princess was the nearest and 
 most suitable of King Alfred's relatives for such re- 
 sponsibility she had one sister, Princess Anne, but 
 an unhappy marriage had sent that lady into a High 
 Church sisterhood, of which she had for years been 
 Abbess and Buckingham Palace contained many 
 suites of apartments. And the health of the King 
 so wanted watching. The venerable pile in Kensing- 
 ton Gardens would also have been much more con- 
 venient in many ways for the young queen widow 
 than the residence selected; and the Princess Geor- 
 gina, in spite of years of the dearest associations, 
 
 263
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 would gladly have embraced the duty of giving it 
 up. But she failed to receive any hint that such a 
 sacrifice would be welcome. Her nephew had ap- 
 parently no desire to turn his court into a home in 
 so far as his Aunt Georgina's knitting would have 
 that effect. He asked her support at garden-parties 
 and at race-meetings, and her name frequently figured 
 among those who had had the honor of dining the 
 evening before with His Majesty the King. When, so 
 pathetically alone, he acknowledged curtseys at his 
 drawing-rooms, her dignified gray presence was the 
 first to bend before him ; and when the Court gathered 
 behind and the debutantes began to flutter past, she 
 stood nearer than any other woman to his bowing 
 figure. But the King jealously preserved his loneli- 
 ness, even in the midst of his state-prescribed entou- 
 rage, and domesticated nothing but his dog Tinker 
 and later, a kitten given him by his friend, Arthur 
 Youghall, the Canadian Minister. Tales were told 
 of this kitten and the King's affection for it, of its 
 flexible silver collar with the writing, worked in tiny 
 turquoises, "I am the King's cat." Not in any way a 
 remarkable kitten except for the fact, which hardly 
 anyone knew, that it had been born in Baltimore, 
 Ohio, and much loved before it crossed the sea. 
 
 Nevertheless, as time went on, the importance of 
 the Princess Georgina inevitably increased. She 
 could speak with personal knowledge of the prac- 
 
 264
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 tices of four reigns. In those more than ever demo- 
 cratic days she became a kind of residuum of court 
 tradition, and an oracle whose voice was ever a 
 faithful echo of the past. It was she who saved the 
 state dinners from the cinematograph. Ambassadors 
 flattered her; she was the personal friend of all 
 cabinet ministers of the first rank, and was supposed 
 to have more power than anyone to "steady the 
 King." He did sometimes consult her, and always 
 profited by her advice. 
 
 An evening party in a historic house of Berkeley 
 Square offered to Baron von Warteg the opportunity 
 he wanted for a chat with the Princess. From her 
 throne upon the sofa on the dais she gave him her 
 hand to kiss, and he bent over it with the grace that 
 never failed to enchant her in so definitely stout and 
 middle-aged a person as the German Ambassador. 
 Graciously the Princess accepted the retirement of her 
 host from the sofa, and Herr von Warteg obeyed 
 the gesture which gave him a seat beside her. They 
 talked of the warmth of the room, of Princess Geor- 
 gina's recent influenza, of the daffodils in the 
 park. 
 
 "And we are living among events, is it not so, 
 Kaiserliche Hoheit? The times are not dull. No, 
 they are not dull at all." 
 
 "True, Baron. In some ways we could wish them 
 duller in others more exciting," the Princess re- 
 
 265
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 plied, with a smile, which brought forth from the 
 Baron a kind of purr of response. Old as she was 
 the Princess would always dance. 
 
 "This American affair now you do not feel, your- 
 self the least vexation I am certain, heinf" 
 
 "My good friend, why should anyone feel vexa- 
 tion? They took the first step; we naturally re- 
 sponded to an overture so full of good feeling. Now 
 they reconsider. Foila tout!" 
 
 "Yes, yes," the Baron nodded weightily, reflective- 
 ly. "Yes. And a bargain with the Americans * 
 in my country we think it not altogether well. They 
 are fickle, the Americans." 
 
 The Princess shook, ever so lightly, the fan of 
 admonition at the Ambassador. 
 
 "You mustn't abuse our kinsfolk, Excellency." 
 
 "Kinsfolk! Ach, yes. Removed a little. And in 
 a sense our kinsfolk also." 
 
 "In a sense the kinsfolk of all Europe, my dear 
 Baron," the Princess replied sweetly. 
 
 Baron Warteg's sleepy eyes opened a trifle wider. 
 He may have been thinking of the wrecking of a 
 newspaper office in New York by a German-Ameri- 
 can mob the week before, as a protest against the 
 treaty. 
 
 "No doubt it may be put that way also. But, Ach I 
 The treaty! And in a way, too, such a good thing, 
 that treaty. And on both sides the people so pleased, 
 
 266
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 is it not? I think one day you will haf that treaty. 
 It is my opinion." 
 
 The Princess closed her fan. 
 
 "When I hear the voice of the people, Baron, I 
 am tempted to shut the door. When I open it again 
 they will be saying something else !" 
 
 "You are tempted ach, so!" Baron von War- 
 teg laughed a short, fat laugh not calculated to dis- 
 turb his dinner. "But this is the fourth time they 
 have tried already. What two peoples want four 
 times one day it will happen. The King should not 
 be discouraged." 
 
 "Ah, Excellency, if all our friends only wished 
 us as well as you do !" smiled the Princess, and 
 turned not one gray hair. "The King looked well, 
 did you not think, at the unveiling this morning?" 
 
 The unveiling was of a statue to Abraham Lin- 
 coln, to which the treaty was hoped to have given 
 more than a sentimental significance. 
 
 "His Majesty seemed in the best of health. But 
 he does too much, Princess. He is everywhere. It 
 is splendid he thinks never of himself but " 
 
 "And will you tell me, Baron, what there is to keep 
 him at home? No ties no interests " 
 
 The Baron nodded sympathetically. This was a 
 matter upon which the Princess would be less reticent 
 an old subject between them. 
 
 "If you could but see the private rooms at the 
 
 267
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 palace! So bare and barren! No little nothings 
 scattered about that tell of a woman's hand! No 
 charm, Baron." 
 
 "No sharm, no Princess. It is that to me which 
 is so sad also. Ach, well and the fruit is dropping, 
 Princess. The fruit is dropping from the tree." 
 
 "Not yet the fruit, Excellency. I admit the mar- 
 riages in Holland and in Norway " 
 
 The Ambassador waved his hand. He had been 
 thinking of the Archduchess Valerie and Augusta 
 of Ritterstein-Walpeck, both married within the 
 year; and Princess Georgina knew it. 
 
 "But my dear little friend Sophia " 
 
 "She still hangs by the tree," stated the Baron, 
 heavily pursuing his figure. "It is true. She still 
 hangs by the tree." 
 
 "Now in this our hope is the same, Excellency. 
 Cartes sur la table! Is it because of that hopeless 
 affair with Karl Salvator, or is it because of her 
 uncle's wishes toward us?" 
 
 The Baron von Warteg leaned back in the sofa 
 and poised his head so delicately on the end of his 
 neck that it vibrated there for a second or two, with 
 an effect of immense consideration. When it had 
 ceased to shake he swung it round at the Princess. 
 
 "I think it may be someting of both. But soon too 
 that fruit must now drop. I naturally from time 
 to time from Witterling hear, and he has said to 
 
 268
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 me that poor girl for her kinder about her begins 
 to ask. And so if nothing happens in May " 
 
 "Something must'' said the Princess fervently, 
 "Something must happen in May." 
 
 "That we shall see. The King at least will be in 
 Paris. The Lady will also be in Paris already. 
 They meet. Wir konnen nichts mehr. But there 
 are things vich someone dear to him and close to 
 him should speak to His Majesty " 
 
 The Princess inclined her head. There was no 
 one more close to His Majesty, presumably no one 
 more dear to him than she. They talked together 
 for another five minutes, not more, and in that time 
 spoke of matters of which the high privacy is sel- 
 dom broken to the world. One word, perhaps, may 
 be told. The Princess learned, and it was news to 
 her, that the Archduke Karl Salvator had resigned 
 the army. "He is now altogether become a doctor, 
 that poor man," Warteg told her. "Two castles 
 of his into hospitals he has turned. The Pope has 
 begun to decorate him. He will not now marry." 
 It was all to the good. 
 
 There were perhaps not many matters upon which 
 the desire of the Princess Georgina's and the Baron 
 von Warteg's heart was united, but the marriage of 
 King Alfred and the Princess Sophia of Sternburg- 
 Hofstein was one. It was a simple course, an ob- 
 vious course, a right course, and yet one that seemed 
 
 269
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 so beset with impalpable difficulties that the end in 
 view could not be said to be in sight. Alfred would 
 never state his objection could indeed have no ob- 
 jection to the girl he had not seen since she was 
 in pigtails, yet with one excuse after another he had 
 hitherto declined to look upon her again. If he 
 had shown initiative in any other direction, his aunt 
 would have forgiven him, but less interest it was 
 impossible to exhibit in the daughters and nieces of 
 his "cousins" of Europe. He told her once he had 
 married Britannia, and was very well pleased with 
 his wife. When a whisper began to be heard about 
 that odd, magnetic creature the Countess Waldo- 
 gradoff, the Princess was not displeased. She wel- 
 comed any influence, however indirect, that might 
 lead the King to realize that there should have been a 
 nursery in Buckingham Palace for at least the past 
 three years. 
 
 At last, however, Alfred seemed willing to take 
 the first step toward the most desirable alliance 
 unless he proposed to wait until tots of six and 
 seven were grown up that remained for him in 
 Europe. Knowing as he did, that the Princess 
 Sophia with her aunt, the Grand Duchess Alma, was 
 to spend the second half of May in Paris, he had 
 not refused to fix the last week for his return visit to 
 the President of the Republic. It was an immense 
 gain, a clear indication, it was thought, of the dawn- 
 
 270
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 ing of a new state of grace in His Majesty toward 
 the duties and privileges of his royal estate. The 
 meeting would at least take place, with as little 
 formality as could be managed, and if nothing- 
 transpired then to encourage their faint spark of 
 hope 
 
 "But it will," said the Princess confidently. "They 
 are coming to take me to supper, so we must chat an- 
 other time, dear Baron. It will I know it will. In 
 the end, in these matters, the right thing always hap- 
 pens." 
 
 The Ambassador was on his legs. "I gif you a 
 German watchword, Royal Highness, for the time 
 that is to us now left. Set nur bravf" 
 
 He bowed low with this last word. 
 
 "Geschelen!" cried the Princess gaily, as she sailed 
 away to supper.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 IT was impossible to say that a ball at the Elysee 
 would not be acceptable to King Alfred as an 
 early fixture of his week as the guest of the 
 President, although His Majesty danced so little 
 seldom at home, and even more rarely abroad. His 
 Majesty was known as the most serious young man 
 in Europe. But the King would be charmed with a 
 ball. "Of the two," he said to Lord Despenser, his 
 private secretary, comparing it with the equally in- 
 evitable gala performance at the Opera, "it's much 
 the less likely to give one a headache." And the 
 visit was to have real attractions for Alfred. He 
 was to be shown all or perhaps nearly all that 
 had been accomplished in the science of aerial navi- 
 gation in France in the last very eventful year in 
 that direction. It was arranged that he should re- 
 ceive Du Rozet, the marvelous Du Rozet, who 
 stood still in the air. France was more than ever 
 mistress overhead. At the banquet he was to speak 
 of it in terms of congratulation that were none the 
 less fine for being so simple, things he had himself 
 
 272
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 thought of to say. He was to decorate Du Rozet. 
 It had not been arranged, but he privately meant, 
 with all the grace and impulse of the impromptu, to 
 accompany Du Rozet as passenger in some excur- 
 sion aloft not yet outworn by familiarity. These 
 were to be the pleasures of the visit, the thing apart 
 from politics, which made it to him so specially 
 worth while; but he held himself equally responsive 
 to the ceremonials by which, he told himself, he 
 earned his living. Already in his tours he had won 
 a reputation for dependability in fulfilling the least 
 important of his engagements. "The King never 
 disappoints," was a common phrase at home and 
 abroad. He sent no substitute and made no excuses, 
 even in his own dominions. It was a characteristic 
 that made the Princess Georgina very hopeful about 
 one issue of the visit to Paris. 
 
 Alfred was aware that at one time or another dur- 
 ing his visit, the unpremeditated meeting with the 
 Princess Sophia would take place. He accepted that, 
 too, as part of the inevitable. In the last year or 
 two it had become increasingly difficult to evade this 
 contingency; it had buzzed like a perpetual blue- 
 bottle in his life. On this occasion he meant, ever so 
 humanely, to squash the blue-bottle. He had no 
 illusions as to inflicting any distress upon the Prin- 
 cess Sophy in doing it. He was perhaps even better 
 informed than Herr von Warteg about the state of 
 
 273
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 her mind and heart. For such talk, from court to 
 court the way is short, and already the world had 
 drawn about the thwarted affection of the Princess 
 Sophia and the Archduke Karl Salvator a sentimental 
 halo of fidelity without hope. King Alfred had first 
 learned of it long ago, in a far land, one memorable 
 day on the waters of an enchanted forest, and had 
 never forgotten. He sometimes rehearsed to him- 
 self what he should say, when at last their respective 
 tormentors should succeed, and leave him discreetly 
 alone with poor Sophy to make better acquaintance. 
 What he could say would depend, altogether, upon 
 what she was like; he had the vaguest notion what 
 she was like. But what he would desire to convey, 
 with every friendliness, might be paraphrased like 
 this: 
 
 "Gentle cousin because you are my cousin we 
 both know exactly what they are up to, don't we? 
 And without seeming in the least to pry into your 
 affairs, I want to take this opportunity of assuring 
 you that nothing will ever induce me to allow you 
 to be worried about it. I give you my word. And 
 if you will allow me, as your cousin, to say so, I 
 think he's the best fellow in Germany, as well as no 
 end of a doctor. And my advice to you, dear Prin- 
 cess, if you will accept it, is to dp as I do. That 
 is, tire them out." 
 
 As the time drew near he wondered, quite with a 
 
 274
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 lively interest, whether she would be the kind of 
 person one could say that sort of thing to, or whether 
 from the beginning he would have to find phrases, 
 and take precautions, and maneuver, as had been for 
 the last five years so much the habit of his life. 
 
 He was thinking about it again as he adjusted the 
 blue ribbon of the Garter across his breast, prepara- 
 tory to the state dinner which was to precede the 
 ball, thinking of it at that intimate moment before 
 the looking-glass which, in spite of ministering 
 valets, must precede such functions for kings as for 
 deputies. It would save a great deal of trouble if 
 Sophia was that kind of person. There was just a 
 chance of it. She had been at school ; and at school, 
 he said to himself, "she was a friend of my wife." 
 She ought to be open, and frank, and simple, ap- 
 proachable in open, frank, and simple terms. But 
 the odds, he recognized heavily, were against it. 
 He would almost certainly be obliged to fence and 
 dissemble; and there was nothing he was worse 
 at. 
 
 "I shall have to let her make most of the run- 
 ning," he counseled himself. "Otherwise she'll see 
 through me in two seconds." And he remembered 
 again the polite and dignified set of observations 
 about the world in general with which he would con- 
 vey to her that nothing was further from his mind 
 than marrying anyone in particular. 
 
 275
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Catkin, who was still with him, had ventured to 
 say at some point in his assistance, that this was the 
 first ball His Majesty had attended in what might 
 be called foreign parts since the occasion at Wash- 
 ington, "When I put out your Rifles uniform, sir." 
 This time it was the ordinary evening dress of an 
 English gentleman, and no pranks accompanied 
 now by the symbols of the Most Exalted Order of 
 the Garter, and the star of the Legion of Honor. 
 Catkin was better content. 
 
 Perhaps it was Catkin's remark, helped by some 
 reaction from the high, formal occasions through 
 which he had been passing with such distinction and 
 acclaim all the day, that suddenly filled Alfred's 
 mind with a sense of the old freedom of talk at 
 Colson's Point, with the presence almost of Morrow, 
 of Henry Lanchester of Abe, good old Abe. It 
 seemed to blow in at the long window with the spring 
 wind, from anywhere, from nowhere; and it took 
 such possession of him that he deliberately sat down 
 to feel it, with a smile on his lips. Words came 
 back, and the scent of balsam boughs, and far over 
 the water the drifting leaves of birch and maple. 
 . . . He sat, stirred and smiling; and when he came 
 out of his reverie it was with a wonderful high beat 
 of the heart. Through the dinner he was full of 
 talk, with a restless, questioning eye; and when it 
 was over he put on his gloves for the ballroom with 
 
 276
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 a readiness which brought a sigh from the stout 
 President. 
 
 11 A h, sire, la jeunesse " 
 
 It brought him back the tap of the old lady's fan 
 in the White House, and her word to him "There's 
 only one time to dance, Prince." Well, he had 
 danced, and perhaps he would dance again. Again, 
 as he entered the ballroom to the familiar music of 
 his own national anthem, he felt that former magic 
 in his feet. It quickened strangely with the heady, 
 rapturous lift of the Marseillaise. 
 
 And what the world saw, watching under the 
 sparkling diadems of the new plutocracy, or the more 
 tarnished and distinguished heirlooms of the Fau- 
 bourg what the world saw watching, all smiles and 
 vivacity and exquisitely measured behavior, was a 
 tall young man, with a very dignified carriage of the 
 head, "Plus beau meme que ses portraits" accom- 
 panied by a soldier staff splendid in red and gold, 
 and rows of medals conspicuous as the valor that 
 won them. That was what the world saw, the privi- 
 leged world, breaking into two to make an aisle of 
 passage to the higher place beyond the tasseled 
 ropes where the ladies of the Cabinet were gathered, 
 and the Embassies, and where, for a little, all was 
 ceremony and bows from the waist. The Bourbon 
 ballroom never saw a scene more brilliant, or, when 
 the young King of England led forth in the quadrille 
 
 277
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 of honor the gray-haired wife of the President of the 
 Republic, an occasion more moving. It was danced, 
 the quadrille of honor, with marked precision on 
 the part of England, with infinite grace on the part 
 of France; and the only regret was that the Arch- 
 duchess Sophia Ludovica did not arrive in time to 
 take her place in it, which was nevertheless filled 
 quite adequately by the wife of the Austrian Ambas- 
 sador. 
 
 So pleasant, so charming, so motherly was his 
 official hostess that Alfred a little later impulsively 
 said to her: 
 
 "Do you know, you remind me immensely, Ma- 
 dame, of my very dear friend in America, Mrs. 
 James Phipps." 
 
 "Madame Pipe! But, sire, she is here now she 
 is with us to-night, that lady!" exclaimed Madame 
 Berthou, all happiness. "In this crowd it is impos- 
 sible that Your Majesty has yet seen her. But she 
 is here." 
 
 "The wife of the ex-President?" demanded her 
 guest. 
 
 "But yes! At the last moment almost one has 
 asked a card, from the American Embassy. Some 
 part, she is with us," beamed his hostess. "Is it 
 permitted that we send to find Madame Pipe?" 
 
 Alfred with a bounding heart expressed his pleas- 
 ure and remembered his self-control. 
 
 278
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "It will be delightful to see her again," he said. 
 "Perhaps a little later in the evening? She may be 
 not yet arrived." 
 
 It would indeed be delightful to see her again. 
 It could not be three weeks, he calculated rapidly, 
 since Hilary had been with her, with them both for 
 their silver wedding, in the University suburb of 
 Boston to which they had retired. He would get, 
 if he could only ask for it with discretion, a word 
 of Hilary which would be almost warm from her- 
 self. But he must show no impatience. He set him- 
 self to describe to Madame Berthou some features 
 of the White House at Washington, and on the 
 whole to congratulate her that her own official dwell- 
 ing should be much as the last Napoleon had left it. 
 
 Presently a murmured word from Lord Despenser 
 conveyed to him a reminder. 
 
 "I believe, Madame, that my cousin of Sternburg- 
 Hofstein is also my fellow-guest to-night," he said. 
 "I should like, if I may, presently to pay her my 
 respects." 
 
 Madame Berthou nodded gaily toward a sofa op- 
 posite, but at an angle, and withdrawn in an alcove, 
 about which all that he saw immediately was a con- 
 fused flowing of skirts. 
 
 "Her Serene Highness is already seated quite near 
 by," she said. "That is her chamberlain now speak- 
 ing with the President, and the German Ambassa- 
 
 279
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 dress is just leaving her now. I will myself," said 
 Madame Berthou, rising, "bring Her Serene High- 
 ness to speak with Your Majesty." 
 
 But Alfred was already on his feet. 
 
 "No," he said impulsively, "I will go to my 
 cousin." To himself he was saying, "I'm not going 
 to have her marched up in the face of Europe to be 
 refused. That's too hard luck." 
 
 Madame Berthou glanced over her shoulder, and 
 an A.D.C. brought his heels together beside them. 
 
 "Captain Ducheyne then will conduct you, sire," 
 said she, with a smile that made her more motherly 
 than ever. His Majesty was of an amiability, of a 
 desinvolture most touching. 
 
 The famous orchestra was pouring its soul out 
 in a waltz; the floor was full of whirling figures. 
 Never had he seen so many short, black beards twirl- 
 ing furiously round and round. That was the 
 thought that crossed Alfred's mind as he accepted 
 the conduct of Captain Ducheyne toward the sofa 
 upon which sat Her Serene Highness the Princess 
 Sophia Ludovica of Sternburg-Hofstein, plump in 
 pale green satin, more or less surrounded by persons 
 in attendance upon her. The Ambassador for Ger- 
 many moved, with a gratified air, a small chair 
 which stood in the way; the Chief Chamberlain of 
 Sternburg-Hofstein took a pace or two backward 
 with the intention to efface himself. The world, the 
 
 280
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 great world of Europe, delicately chatting and os- 
 tensibly unaware, was on tiptoe, and every glance 
 was charged. Then it all happened, so quickly 
 so quickly, that many would not believe their eyes. 
 Three steps away the King was noticed suddenly to 
 stop and grow pale. Then he completed his advance 
 to the sofa, where he bowed to Her Serene High- 
 ness, and to the other lady seated beside her, a young 
 lady of great beauty but white as death, with equal 
 formality. There were those who said he addressed 
 one sentence to the Princess; there were those who 
 said he addressed two; but there was only one re- 
 port it flew of what he did. After a bare min- 
 ute he turned to the beautiful American lady, white 
 as a lily beside the Princess, and said for the sec- 
 ond time in his life "May I have this one?" With 
 astonishment the Chief Chamberlain of the Court 
 of Sternburg-Hofstein saw her rise and float away 
 with the King upon the ballroom floor. With aston- 
 ishment the Ambassador for Germany also, and per- 
 haps not without astonishment Her Serene Highness 
 herself, saw them float away. 
 
 "I sink," growled His Excellency, "that His Maj- 
 esty 'as mistook those two ladies. If not, it is an 
 affrond " 
 
 He said it in French to the Secretary of his own 
 Legation, but the pronunciation was the same. 
 There was barely time for him to say this, and to 
 
 281
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 turn about with the intention of bringing his support 
 to the deserted Princess, when between him and her 
 sacred sofa was suddenly thrust the person of a tall, 
 thin gentleman, with a straggling fair beard, and a 
 head like a saint in a window. Nevertheless he 
 brought his heels together before the Princess in the 
 manner of this world, and offered her his arm, which 
 she took with the look of a Princess who dreamed 
 and was very much afraid. But she took it, and they 
 too floated away. 
 
 "Lieber Go///" said the German Ambassador, and 
 lumbered away to telegraph in full to Potsdam. 
 
 Never was a dance so short as that danced by 
 King Alfred of England with Miss Hilary Lanches- 
 ter of Baltimore, Ohio; never, in the pauses, were 
 words exchanged less to be forgotten or reported. 
 When Mrs. Phipps from her corner among the 
 dowagers saw it happen, she felt the extremely guilty 
 pang of the accomplice who does not approve, and 
 found herself explaining to the wife of her country's 
 ambassador, "Oh, yes, he knew them very well in 
 the Adirondacks when he was just Prince Alfred." 
 At the end of the dance she summoned all her forti- 
 tude, for she saw them approaching, and before 
 many moments she needed it. 
 
 "I have told His Majesty," said Hilary, with a 
 wonderful bloom in her cheeks and a proud light 
 in her eyes, "that we leave for Genoa to-morrow 
 
 282
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 night, but he says, darling, that he must come to tea 
 with us at our hotel. May he?" 
 
 "Yes," said Alfred, "I must, whether I may or 
 not, dear Mrs. Phipps." 
 
 He could not have put it, Mrs. Phipps said next 
 day, in a way that was more characteristic. She 
 said it in the act of opening the New York Herald, 
 which, in its description of the ball at the Elysee the 
 night before, remarked upon the somewhat unex- 
 pected presence there of the Archduke Karl Salvator 
 of Herningen. Two days later that enterprising 
 journal was the first in Europe to announce the be- 
 trothal of the Archduke, with His Imperial Majesty 
 the Kaiser's full consent and approval, to the Hered- 
 itary Princess Sophia Ludovica of Sternburg-Hof- 
 stein. The announcement added that the arrange- 
 ment had long been pending, but that the religious 
 difficulty had been in the way. This was now happily 
 settled. The boys were to be brought up Catholics, 
 the girls Protestants.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 THE King was sitting with the kitten on his 
 knee when Mr. Arthur Youghall was ush- 
 ered into his presence. It was eleven o'clock 
 in the morning, the middle of his working hours. 
 The French visit, just over, had accumulated busi- 
 ness for His Majesty, and his desk was covered with 
 papers. He had arrived from Paris only the night 
 before. Notwithstanding all that awaited him, Al- 
 fred would see none of his people that morning until 
 after Mr. Youghall had been and gone. Colonel 
 Sir Francis Oldboys, His Majesty's Assistant Private 
 Secretary, through whose room Youghall passed to 
 get to the King's, looked up without enthusiasm to 
 return his salutation. It was not a thing the House- 
 hold altogether understood, that the young Canadian 
 Under-Secretary, who was so plainly no courtier, 
 should be so often sent for, while more important 
 people were kept waiting. Of course the King was 
 keen on Youghall's shop; but that didn't explain his 
 sitting up with him half the night at Sandringham, 
 for instance, when he had seen, in his pleasant way, 
 
 284
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 all his other guests safely to their rooms. Youghall's 
 was one of those outside influences, so difficult to cal- 
 culate; and the Court was somewhat disposed to 
 show him the empty face of toleration. 
 
 A sheet of blackened blotting paper on the floor, 
 and an inky stream across the topmost page on the 
 desk told their own tale. The kitten, purring unre- 
 pentant under the King's caress, looked ready for 
 another spring. 
 
 "Good morning, Arthur. Sit down, will you?" 
 Alfred held out his hand with careful regard to the 
 equilibrium of the kitten. "Columbia has been in 
 mischief again." His tone was rather pleased and 
 satisfied with Columbia. 
 
 "I see she has. Can I do anything?" 
 
 "No, don't bother. Some of the fellows will see 
 to it. Well, I'm back. Have you heard what hap- 
 pened?" 
 
 "You made a speech, sir, you dined, you flew, and 
 you danced," replied Youghall gravely, yet with 
 a twinkle. 
 
 "I see you do know. Drop it, Columbia S" He 
 liberated his thumb. "I wish you wouldn't 'sir' me 
 in private, Arthur. You know how I dislike it. 
 Couldn't you call me 'Cakes,' as old Longworth 
 used to?" 
 
 "No," said Youghall steadfastly, "I don't think 
 I could call you 'Cakes.' " 
 
 285
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Well, hang it, old chap, I must have somebody 
 to address me in terms of humanity occasionally. 
 And you are closer to me, Arthur, than anybody else 
 in the world you know you are." 
 
 King Alfred, still playing with his kitten, turned 
 upon his Under-Secretary for War the happiest face 
 he had offered to the inspection of anyone since the 
 day of his proclamation. Youghall perceived it, and 
 hardened his heart. There was something sus- 
 piciously like boyish cajolery in the King's voice. 
 
 "I could never stick Lengthy's doing it," he said. 
 "Beastly cheek. But if it would warm your heart 
 to know it, your health is drunk as King Cakes in 
 half the pubs of the United Kingdom." 
 
 Alfred laughed delightedly. "Good!" he ex- 
 claimed. "That's ripping. I'll tell Despenser that 
 he's so stuck on propriety. Then it is generally 
 known, Youghall talked about?" 
 
 "It is very generally known. And I'm afraid it's 
 the talk of Europe." 
 
 "My one little dance with the wrong lady! If 
 they only knew how little she was the wrong lady. 
 I say I consider the Kaiser has behaved awfully 
 well. Don't you think so?" 
 
 "In the circumstances the Emperor is thought to 
 have done the only possible thing. They say he 
 ought to give Karl Salvator the Black Eagle for 
 saving the situation," Youghall said. "But of 
 
 286
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 course he is in the worst sort of a temper. I be- 
 lieve he took it out of Lady Poindexter at his recep- 
 tion on Friday night rather badly. Poindexter has 
 hinted that he'd like to be transferred." 
 
 Sir Herbert Poindexter was the British ambassa- 
 dor to the court of Berlin. 
 
 "I hope he won't do anything so silly. I'm sorry 
 for Lady Poindexter; but they must realize by this 
 time that Heinrich has no manners." 
 
 Few things apparently were of less consequence to 
 His Majesty at that moment than the feelings of 
 his representative in Germany; but Youghall shook 
 his head. 
 
 "I couldn't help it, Youghall," pleaded his sov- 
 ereign. "There she was, you know." 
 
 The Under-Secretary felt his defences melt within 
 him. "Any man in the circumstances would have 
 danced with his wife," he said grimly. "It's easy 
 to exaggerate the thing. It looked a little inten- 
 tional, which of course it wasn't; that's all." 
 
 "I was able to call upon my cousin, and bring my 
 congratulations, before I left. I did all I could," 
 Alfred assured him. "I never saw a pleasanter 
 young woman. Her aunt wasn't over civil. Aunts," 
 he reflected, "often are not. But now that we've 
 got through with all that, Youghall, I have some 
 things to say. Come over here, will you? I don't 
 want to shout." 
 
 287
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Youghall brought his chair closer, and sat down 
 in it with every appearance of resistance possible to 
 a loyal subject. 
 
 "You obliged me extremely just now by saying, 
 'Any man would have danced with his wife.' I infer 
 that you do think of her as my wife you do con- 
 sider her to be that." 
 
 "You know how the law stands, sir. But if you 
 do, I do," said Youghall. 
 
 "Why should there be a special law for me?" 
 cried Alfred passionately, throwing down his pen. 
 "I claim the protection of the law that sustains every 
 man in this realm, except those of my family, in his 
 private affairs; I claim the protection of the com- 
 mon law, Youghall!" 
 
 "For God's sake, not so loud." 
 
 "One way or another, Youghall, I am going to 
 make an end of this. I have her permission. She 
 started for Italy next day, but she left me free 
 to act as I thought best. She agrees that we 
 have rights as as human beings, Youghall, 
 which God gave us, and which no power but God 
 can take away. I never supposed I could bring 
 her to this, but I did. She thought we ought to 
 wait, and we have waited; but now she's perfectly 
 game." 
 
 Youghall sat further back into his chair, thrust 
 his hands in his trousers pockets, recrossed his legs, 
 
 288
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 and said nothing. The King bore it for a moment 
 and then remarked plaintively: 
 
 "I wish you wouldn't sit like that, Youghall. You 
 make me think of the treasury bench." 
 
 "Sorry, sir," the other laughed with contrition, 
 "but you had the floor, you know. Won't you go 
 on?" 
 
 "Well, I've said it, haven't I ? Somehow or other 
 we are coming out into the open, I and my wife." 
 He folded his arms and looked very resolute. 
 "Somehow or other. I ought to say at once, Youg- 
 hall, that I haven't sent for you to ask advice about 
 that. I have made up my mind. But the great 
 point of course is how, and there I expect your help." 
 
 Still Youghall did not speak. The kitten set 
 itself to lick its master's finger, and he smiled down 
 at it. 
 
 "Yes, kitty," he said, "before you are a cat, Eng- 
 land will have a queen, I hope. I will, anyway." 
 
 "I know the difficulties," the King went on, "and 
 you have always told me that I should never get the 
 consent of Parliament to my marriage to Miss Lan- 
 chester of America. But supposing I ask for the 
 recognition of that lady as my wife? She is not a 
 nobody, is Miss Lanchester of America. Suppos- 
 ing I just myself sent a notice to the Times to-day 
 of that event at Cascade, with the date? Who is 
 to prevent me?" 
 
 289
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Youghall, under a heavy brow, smiled at him. 
 
 "Why, the Times would," he said. "Yes, sir. I 
 think the Times would." 
 
 Alfred started up, and put two or three stormy 
 paces between them. 
 
 "You will please consider that we are not jest- 
 ing," he said over his shoulder. The kitten, dis- 
 lodged, humped her back upon the floor and yawned. 
 
 Youghall also rose to his feet. 
 
 "I was never further from jesting in my life," he 
 said; and indeed he had not that appearance. 
 
 The King walked over to the window and stood 
 there for a moment looking out. The clock that 
 had measured the labors of Queen Victoria ticked in 
 the silence, through which Youghall also, with bent 
 head, stood and waited. Presently Alfred turned. 
 
 "I'm a bit wrought up, Arthur. Bad nights and 
 so on. You'll forgive me. But I do mean what 
 I say." 
 
 "I see you do, sir. And I am here to take your 
 instructions." 
 
 "Yes," Alfred assented. "But also to help me to 
 give them. That's even more important." 
 
 He flung himself again in his chair as he spoke. 
 The kitten immediately re-established herself; and 
 Youghall too resumed his seat. 
 
 "Look here, Youghall. Do you really think there 
 would be such a row? Look here if you consider 
 
 290
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 history! Who was the mother of Queen Elizabeth? 
 Just a plain gentlewoman. Who was the grand- 
 mother of Mary and Anne Stuart? Just a pretty 
 barmaid. Why should the heavens fall, anyway, if 
 I elect to marry a beautiful, well-born, wealthy 
 American lady whose father has held the highest 
 office in his country and whom I have married 
 already?" 
 
 Youghall's face wore the expression of one who 
 had heard these things a great many times before. 
 He ventured to indicate it. 
 
 "We've been over all that pretty often," he said. 
 "It would be impossible to calculate the effect of such 
 a disclosure upon the country in normal times the 
 disclosure either of the fact or of Your Majesty's 
 wish to make it a fact. In normal times, while you 
 might carry the Commons with you the rank and 
 file you could expect nothing but the antagonism 
 of your own order, the aristocracy, and the classes 
 who support the crown." 
 
 "The aristocracy marry whom they please." 
 
 "Yes, but they won't let you do it. To their 
 eyes, you see, it's knocking two legs from under the 
 throne," said Youghall, possibly with more force 
 than elegance. "But we needn't consider what would 
 happen in normal times, because, for the purposes 
 of this argument, the times are not normal." 
 
 "You mean " 
 
 291
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "I mean this. For the fourth time, as you know, 
 sir, the Americans have held out to us the prospect 
 of a treaty of arbitration, and, this last time, of 
 effectual alliance. For the fourth time they have 
 won our eager co-operation in advance. No one has 
 done more than you yourself and you know what 
 has happened." 
 
 Youghall, as he talked, mechanically urged with 
 his foot a revolving bookcase, and sent it slowly 
 circling. 
 
 "Their Senate has again cut the thing up till it's 
 worthless," he went on. 
 
 "I know I know. Go on." 
 
 "The point is, we are beginning on this side to 
 question their good faith in this business. There's 
 a feeling in the House you can't be surprised." 
 
 "What are you getting at, Youghall?" 
 
 But the slow-spoken Canadian would make his 
 point in his own way. He gave the bookcase another 
 push, and continued: 
 
 "I believe it's unjustified. I believe the American 
 people honestly want the treaty have wanted it 
 every time. Every now and again they throw up a 
 president who wants it too. And every time the 
 will of the people gets caught in a steel trap in the 
 Senate. The fact is you couldn't convince them of 
 it, but the Americans are better than some of their 
 instruments. It stands to reason that the man they 
 
 292
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 make their chief executive to-day represents them 
 more truly than the institutions they set up at the 
 end of the eighteenth century. And president after 
 president, standing for the people, has wanted this 
 thing done." 
 
 The King had taken up his pen, and was drawing 
 a key pattern round the inky havoc the kitten had 
 made. 
 
 "Yes, Youghall but do let us stick to the point." 
 
 "I am sticking to it or getting to it. I only say 
 that these things being true, we need not suppose, 
 in spite of the jealousy of the Senate, or the hostility 
 of the foreign vote, assisted as we know it to be from 
 this side we need not suppose that the treaty is at 
 all indefinitely postponed." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "But the irritation over here just now is such that 
 not only would the chances for the co-operation you 
 require be hopeless, but" and in spite of himself 
 Youghall's manner grew weightier "the refusal 
 would be couched in terms so wounding to American 
 susceptibilities as to put the chances for any treaty 
 whatever practically out of Court for a long time. 
 I know the Americans, sir, and it would be so. 
 There are men in the House there are men in the 
 government who would not scruple to use the op- 
 portunity of such a debate, if such a debate were 
 imaginable, to repay themselves for the rather hu- 
 
 293
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 miliating position we have been occupying lately. I 
 can only say that I believe the damage to the hope of 
 the effective solidarity of the race would be very great 
 indeed." 
 
 King Alfred listened, and in silence went on draw- 
 ing his pattern. The kitten watching on his knee 
 followed the motions of his pen with quick little 
 movements of her head. 
 
 "Then what do you want me to do?" 
 "To wait, sir. To wait till we get the treaty." 
 "To wait for what will never happen. The 
 Times'* Washington correspondent said at the time 
 that it would never happen. I have waited, Youg- 
 hall. I will wait no longer." 
 A second of silence passed. 
 
 "Then what am I to do?" asked Youghall quietly. 
 Alfred threw himself back in his chair. 
 "My God, was there ever a man more helpless 
 than I am !" he exclaimed. "Do you mind stopping 
 twirling that thing round and round? I beg your 
 pardon, but you've annoyed me. Yes, you have, 
 Youghall, you've annoyed me very much. There are 
 people who say both countries would be better with- 
 out that treaty." 
 
 "Yes, there are, but I do not believe them." 
 "And if it did come to pass what then?" 
 "If it did come to pass, in the great satisfaction 
 that would be felt about it, what you propose if 
 
 294
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 you still proposed it would be, though difficult, far 
 more possible," said Youghall cautiously. 
 
 "If I still proposed it! To wait you invite me 
 to wait until this thing in the air, this relegated thing, 
 this impossible thing should become an actuality! 
 Are they all as cold-blooded in Canada as you are, 
 Youghall?" 
 
 The day was raw and the fire had burned low. 
 King Alfred went to it and stirred it with the poker. 
 He stood over it shivering. 
 
 "A great deal of quiet work is being done on both 
 sides that will not stop until we succeed," said the 
 Under-Secretary. "And this last majority against it 
 in the Senate was very narrow. All we want is a 
 president who is a bit of an idealist, a strong man 
 and a stayer. We may get him in November " 
 
 The King picked a piece of coal out of the scuttle, 
 but it dropped from the tongs and crashed on the 
 hearth. 
 
 "I think I think you ought to put the coal on the 
 grate, Youghall, and not leave it for me to do " 
 
 There was a kind of quiver in his voice. Youghall 
 dashed at the fire and mended it. Then he met his 
 King's miserable eyes, went closer and threw an arm 
 about him. So they stood for a moment. 
 
 "Thank you, Arthur. I'm all right. It's this 
 everlasting fighting and nothing there to fight. 
 Always in the wrong, I am. That takes the heart 
 
 295
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 out of a man, you know. You can go now, dear 
 chap. Tell Oldboys as you go through that I shan't 
 want him for a quarter of an hour." 
 
 He had gone back to his chair, and Youghall, at 
 the sight of his face, remembered with a tightening 
 of the heart how it had looked on his pillow in the 
 tent in the garden at Ottawa. 
 
 "I will wait," said Alfred. "Of course. On what 
 you tell me I can do nothing else." 
 
 "At all events till November," softened Youghall, 
 but the King did not look up again. 
 
 He went out with so serious a face that Sir Fran- 
 cis Oldboys, to whom he delivered the message, felt 
 indignant. This was the kind of worrying to which 
 the King's interest in public affairs was constantly 
 subjecting him. Ten to one the fellow had been 
 talking the shop of his department! Sir Francis 
 pulled down his waistcoat and fumed again. Then 
 he set himself and the matters upon which he should 
 take His Majesty's pleasure, to wait yet another 
 quarter of an hour, while in the next room the King 
 his master stroked the kitten on his knee.
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 T was perfectly delightful to see him again, Hil, 
 darling perfectly delightful and to be 
 singled out in that way for a personal vis- 
 
 "Well, considering, Mumsie, that he spent a whole 
 week with you in Washington he couldn't very well 
 have done less." 
 
 They were sitting, Mrs. Phipps and Hilary Lan- 
 chester, in their lit salon in the Rapide that glides 
 out of Lyons about eight o'clock in the even- 
 ing for the south. They had left Paris the night 
 before, but Hilary would go no further than 
 Lyons, no further, Mrs. Phipps suspected, than 
 the easy reach of the Paris newspapers. All day 
 long in their driving and sight-seeing her girl had 
 been quiet and withdrawn. From her behavior 
 since the ball it might be supposed, thought Mrs. 
 Phipps, that to dance with a King of England and 
 to receive him intimately the next afternoon were 
 things that might happen any day of the week. 
 [Yet Mrs. Phipps could not deny a certain up- 
 
 297
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 lift, . . . that would not allow itself to be talked 
 about. 
 
 Now, in the pale gray interior of their compart- 
 ment a moment of expansion seemed to have come. 
 The maid they were sharing had done what she 
 could for them for the night and gone back to her 
 own carriage; the berths had not yet been made up. 
 They were sitting tiredly together after their long 
 day; Hilary's hand crept into her friend's. 
 
 "Things were different then. James and I have 
 been forgotten for four years. It was nice of him," 
 insisted Mrs. Phipps. "But I was going to say, Hil, 
 that delightful as it all was, if I had realized what 
 was going to happen I don't think, dear, that I would 
 have dared to come." 
 
 "I don't see why," said Hilary unguardedly. 
 
 "Don't you, Hil don't you? Can you remember 
 his face when you and he came up to me, and not 
 see why?" 
 
 "Mumsie, you are very prone to exaggeration." 
 
 "That's what you said when I warned you about 
 Jimenez." 
 
 "Jimenez!" she cried scornfully, "Henrico Jim- 
 enez was a wretched creature who had lost more 
 money than he could pay. The inquest showed that, 
 darling. He didn't shoot himself for love of me 
 please don't say it, or think it." 
 
 "I don't say it, and I don't think it. I only say 
 
 298
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 that it was another case where I was told I was very 
 prone to exaggeration. Hil, why hasn't he mar- 
 ried?" 
 
 "I didn't ask him, Mumsie. Do you think I 
 ought?" 
 
 "They say nobody can understand it, and it's put 
 down in some quarters to the influence of that 
 Madame Waldogradoff. But I can't help thinking 
 he looks much too nice and straight for anything 
 of that sort." 
 
 "Appearances," began Hilary. "But I agree," she 
 added with a pang. "Oh, yes. He does. P.L.M." 
 She traced with the tip of her umbrella the letters 
 woven in the white coverings of the couch backs. 
 "Paris, Lyons, Marseilles. I expected Lyons to be 
 warmer, didn't you?" 
 
 "Yes. Hil, it was most unfortunate that I should 
 have had one of my heads yesterday afternoon. To 
 collapse that way before he had been five minutes 
 in the room " 
 
 "You couldn't help it, dearest. It was wonderful 
 that you were able to receive him at all, considering 
 what your heads are. He was very much concerned," 
 Hilary said dreamily. 
 
 "Yes wasn't he? And so resourceful. I thought 
 it simply sweet of him to recommend his own remedy, 
 something he knew to be good. And to send the 
 equerry off for it without a moment's delay like that." 
 
 299
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Yes," Hilary replied, turning her head ever so 
 little aside, "he is resourceful." 
 
 "I shall never forget his standing there beside those 
 pink repp curtains and writing it himself. 'Neuro- 
 tophil.' 'And if you can't get it at one chemist's, 
 try another,' he said to poor Captain the Earl of 
 Man and Manx. Why Man and Manx, I wonder. 
 Clanking about in all his glory after neurotophil for 
 me. For one solid hour, poor fellow. But I must 
 confess it was worth it." 
 
 "It was, darling, wasn't it?" said Hilary innocent- 
 ly. "And let's hope he took a taximeter. What 
 shall we do about the window? Can you stand it 
 as much open as that?" 
 
 "Yes," said the little lady, "I like it. So long as 
 the door is quite shut. What I cannot stand is the 
 awful smell of tobacco in the corridor. Well, dar- 
 ling, my conscience troubles me really hurts about 
 deserting you as I did." 
 
 "Try a little more neurotophil, Mumsie." 
 
 "Ah, you may laugh. But when I think that I'm 
 the only Mumsie you've got and that my flower 
 may perhaps may perhaps be planting herself in 
 a garden where she can't grow " 
 
 The train was hurrying fast through the early sum- 
 mer night. Outside the lights of little towns passed, 
 a river, a bridge. The motion was violent and jar- 
 ring; there was every reason for looking out of the 
 
 300
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 window, and every difficulty in the way of speech. 
 For a moment Hilary, her hand still in Mrs. 
 Phipps's, took refuge in these conditions. Then she 
 gently withdrew it, and bent over her friend, and 
 kissed her. 
 
 "Now that you have said it, dearest, you will have 
 a better night," she said. "And here is the what- 
 do-you-call-him to make up our berths. If you think 
 you can manage, I'll go and see where Rose has 
 tucked herself to sleep." 
 
 That was all that passed. They arrived at Genoa 
 next day. By the time they were settled in their hotel 
 Mrs. Phipps was again threatened with the distress- 
 ing headache which seemed to have been only half 
 dispersed in Paris. Hilary put her to bed and sent 
 Rose to Cook's for their letters. For her, when Rose 
 came back, there was a telegram. It was not un- 
 usual. She and her father were the best correspond- 
 ents in the world, but at major moments they always 
 wired. Hilary opened the envelope without any 
 special heart-beat. She had no premonition of what 
 it was to contain. Purposely, when Mrs. Phipps had 
 carried her off to Europe at three days' notice, Lan- 
 chester had kept his plans to himself. She was abso- 
 lutely run down ; he was more than thankful that she 
 wanted to go; and a hint of what was hatching would 
 have stayed her, he thought. So his message came 
 to her at the first time of her life when she was not 
 
 301
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 thinking at all of her father. It was a word to her 
 before his decision was given to the newspapers. 
 
 "Don't take a day off Europe daughter but daddy 
 is once more out with the boys" in the old joyous 
 jargon that they knew, he and she, so well. 
 
 Her hands, with the paper in them, dropped in her 
 lap; and as she gazed straight in front of her, her 
 
 eyes slowly filled. Her father ! All this time She 
 
 pressed the slip with its perfunctory handwriting to 
 her lips, and the tears ran over. And he had let her 
 go where she wanted so much to be and now she 
 was thousands of miles away from him. "Don't take 
 a day off," he said, and had seen her sail, smiling, with 
 a cabin full of roses, and had gone back alone, to 
 this. She knew all that it had meant and would mean. 
 A pang of disloyalty assailed her. She had never 
 failed him before. 
 
 And then a thought came, as if the sun burst into 
 her mind, and her eyes shone through their tears 
 in that hidden light like any other stars. 
 
 If and if and if No one could say. No one 
 
 ought even to think. But if She would owe it, as 
 
 any royal princess would owe it to her father.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 MRS. PHIPPS would not consent to Hilary's 
 returning to America before the end of 
 August. She had got her girl, she said, 
 and she meant to keep her. Mrs. Phipps pleaded 
 Hilary's health, and, what was more powerful with 
 Hilary, her own. She thought herself over carefully 
 and could find nothing organic to urge, nevertheless 
 the strain of "recent years," Mrs. Phipps said, had 
 been great ; she wanted just the rest Europe was giv- 
 ing her, and Hilary did too. Recent years had done 
 something to Hilary, something a little mysterious, 
 something which her friend could never quite catch 
 or determine, but which made change of scene and 
 charm of old palaces just as necessary for her as for 
 Mrs. Phipps. There were other grounds too. 
 
 "My dear, we can't be any manner of use to 
 them at present. They don't want us. In our 
 country politics is the business of the men. What 
 have we to do with drawing up a campaign against 
 the trusts and the bosses? No. Miss Lanchester, 
 traveling in Europe with Mrs. James Phipps who 
 
 303
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 has been more than a mother to her for many years, 
 is a great deal the most suitable thing for Miss 
 Lanchester to be doing just now, while James is hap- 
 pily occupied in getting a solid convention for Henry 
 at St. Louis." 
 
 "If you really think that " said Hilary, weaken- 
 ing. 
 
 "My dear, you would simply be in the way among 
 the lot of men he will get round him at Old Loon 
 Lake this summer." 
 
 "There's a hotel on Old Loon now," said Hilary 
 with absent eyes. "At Prince's Portage. Stage- 
 coaches all the way from Cascade. All the way. 
 Oh, yes, daddy will make it his headquarters for 
 July and August anyway. And I'd love to be with 
 him, though I wouldn't care to drive there from 
 Cascade." 
 
 "He won't say a word till September, dearie. 
 James didn't. You will be back for his first tour 
 in the West. And then you will drive with him 
 everywhere, Hil, and sit with me in a highly reserved 
 box at his meetings. But I don't see you waving his 
 portrait from a gallery. And among the wolves on 
 the platform, darling, you don't go except across your 
 Mumsie's dead body. Leave the men to the men." 
 
 "I have," said Hilary, with what her friend more 
 and more often described as a far-away look in her 
 eyes. 
 
 304
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Perhaps," she added, "it would be easier over 
 here." 
 
 "The suspense, you mean, dear." 
 
 "Yes the suspense." 
 
 So they wandered from one old yellow town to 
 another and Hilary lived upon her letters, and made 
 of sky and sea and street and palace the framing of 
 her dream. The statues in the gardens trooped 
 obedient to it, and when her news was good, the 
 grapevines danced. Always on Sundays she would 
 find out the English colony's little church, and kneel 
 there and listen to the surpliced chaplain pray to 
 the "only Ruler of princes." 
 
 "Most heartily we beseech Thee with Thy favor 
 to behold our most gracious Sovereign Lord, King 
 Alfred .... that he may always incline to Thy 
 will and walk in Thy way. . . ." 
 
 The first time it seemed strange, and her mur- 
 mured "Amen" was as low as a marriage vow. But 
 it soon became her beautiful and special duty; and 
 she grieved when Sunday found them where no service 
 was. Mrs. Phipps was a churchwoman, too, and a 
 good one, but she looked upon Hilary's unfailing at- 
 tendance with must it be said? something like a 
 jealous eye. Frankly, she confessed to herself, she 
 did not altogether understand it. In every way to 
 be desired of course, but Hil hadn't that sort of 
 temperament. Mrs. Phipps worried a little some- 
 
 305
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 times, seeing her start off in the rain; and once she 
 came back with a cough. She was even getting too 
 fond, at service time, of the dim interiors of the 
 church of the country. Could it all be going dread 
 possibility! to end in something like that? There 
 were times when Mrs. Phipps condemned kings with 
 all the vivacity of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 Their news from home varied. At first the an- 
 nouncement that Henry Lanchester had consented 
 to accept his party's nomination was received with 
 applause, wide and sincere. The country rejoiced that 
 a man so identified with her best traditions should 
 again be willing to take office, if he could get it, and 
 the sympathetic press teemed with tributes to his in- 
 tellectual honesty, his political acumen, his personal 
 charm. But when the clapping had died away, a voice 
 raised here and there qualified the approval, pointed 
 to the "practical issue." The great practical issue was 
 of course that the party should elect its man, but it 
 seemed there were others very important. Hints ap- 
 peared that the party managers were not unanimous, 
 factions drew off, other names were mentioned, even 
 the name of James Phipps. One day, after they had 
 settled for the heat in a villa at Como, Mrs. Phipps 
 had a letter from her husband in which he said, 
 
 "I expect you will be as surprised as I was to 
 know that Joe Amundsen and Dimmock and Rafferty 
 have been round to ask what I should have to say to 
 
 306
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 the ticket. I wasn't over-polite. 'Well,' I said, 
 'gentlemen, I think you ought to know more about 
 me than that. As to my position I'll just tell you one 
 thing. Henry Lanchester consulted me before he 
 agreed to run. So far as I am concerned that's all 
 there is to it. But for your own soul's good I may 
 tell you that you never were further out in your lives 
 than in coming here to-day. Lanchester can carry 
 New England. I can't. It would take a wizard of 
 a wise man to know what the Middle West will say to 
 him after his putting foodstuffs on the free list, 
 but there I think with him, and I'm not changing my 
 mind. Apart from that the people prefer him to 
 me a hundred ways. Go home, gentlemen,' I said, 
 'and learn wisdom' or words to that effect." 
 
 But Mr. Lanchester's political friends were not all 
 so loyal to him as James Phipps. By the end of July 
 it was understood that at least two other candidates 
 would seek nomination from the convention in Septem- 
 ber. Mrs. Phipps and Hilary, by the Lake of Como, 
 read their names with indignation. 
 
 "Who in the world," demanded Hilary, "is Bark- 
 er Hutchinson of Kansas City. I never heard of 
 him." 
 
 "Nor I," said Mrs. Phipps consolingly. "But we 
 may safely leave him to James, darling." 
 
 Mrs. Phipps was confident that candidates left to 
 James would vanish like snow upon the desert's 
 
 30?
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 dusty face. But time went on, and they did not 
 vanish. Lanchester was the party's official selection, 
 but rebel hordes waved pennons and put up leaders, 
 and murmured among themselves. 
 
 "Is it possible that father would withdraw?" 
 asked Hilary with a failing heart. 
 
 "Not while he has James," Mrs. Phipps assured 
 her. 
 
 Hilary asked a great many questions of her friend's 
 riper experience, because she had a great many to 
 answer in the letters that arrived, weekly now, from 
 England. Some of them Mrs. Phipps was able to 
 answer and some she was not. She failed, for 
 instance, at all satisfactorily to describe the scope of 
 the President's powers in a struggle with the Senate, 
 or to define his influence as compared with that of the 
 Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations. 
 
 "It's you who ought to know these things, honey," 
 she declared. "You are much more lately from 
 school." 
 
 "I've never had to know them," she said. "I've 
 always had father." 
 
 "And I've always had James," said Mrs. Phipps. 
 
 And Hilary had to write and confess it, a state 
 of things which brought across to the Lake of Como 
 from a bookseller in the Haymarket three stout 
 volumes, freely marked in pencil, among them 
 Bryce's "American Commonwealth," a little out of 
 
 308
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 date, but still much recommended to inquirers in the 
 neighborhood of the Haymarket. 
 
 King Alfred's interest in American affairs had 
 been marked since the day of his accession, and was 
 natural enough, as the Princess Georgina often ex- 
 plained, since without the aid of America it was 
 doubtful whether he would have been spared even to 
 ascend the throne. But it was thought by many of 
 those nearest him that some abatement of it might 
 very well have been shown at all events some tem- 
 porary abatement after the rejection at Washing- 
 ton of the treaty on which so much depended for the 
 Anglo-Saxon future. It was thought, for instance, 
 not precisely the moment for His Majesty to be 
 dining as he did before the end of July, for the sec- 
 ond time in six months, with the American Am- 
 bassador. 
 
 "They were uppish enough before," said the Prin- 
 cess Georgina. 
 
 But the King dined where he would, and if it 
 was his pleasure to partake of his favorite asparagus 
 soup from the gold plate of the American embassy, 
 with the eagle screaming at the bottom, there was 
 no more to be said. 
 
 The ladies had curtseyed themselves out, and the 
 ambassador, the Honorable William Curtis Corco- 
 ran, in a chair beside King Alfred, had got to the 
 end of the probable effect of the rain upon the young 
 
 309
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 partridges, when the King, as the Ambassador de- 
 scribed it to Mrs. Corcoran afterwards, simply bolted 
 into American politics. 
 
 "I am taking a very deep interest, Mr. Corcoran, 
 in your coming presidential struggle in the autumn." 
 
 "Indeed?" said Mr. Corcoran, looking gratified. 
 "Well, sir, so am I. It may mean a great deal to me, 
 in a way which I might describe as personal. It may 
 mean my head." 
 
 "So much as that?" exclaimed Alfred. "Oh, I 
 hope not. That would mean too much to me too, 
 Mr. Corcoran. I think," he added gravely, "that 
 they gave you your job the same year they gave me 
 mine. I hope nobody will turn either of us out." 
 
 The American Ambassador laughed richly. He 
 was a popular fellow, a man of the world, as well as 
 of letters, and got on excellently at the Court of St. 
 James, though there were publicists in his own coun- 
 try who said that the Stars and Stripes never flew in 
 London except on the King's birthday. It was not 
 true. 
 
 "I should deplore either event, sir. But even the 
 minor one gives me some natural anxiety. If the 
 other side comes in, a lot of us may have to pack. 
 Mr. J. B. Thompson would have, more or less im- 
 mediately, something like six million pounds' worth 
 of places to empty; and my country's devoted band 
 of ambassadors would be the first to march." 
 
 310
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Six million pounds!" exclaimed King Alfred. 
 "Appalling! I'm thankful they don't ask me to 
 do anything like that. Then you must have studied 
 the situation very closely, Mr. Corcoran. Perhaps 
 you can forecast the result." 
 
 The Ambassador shifted in his chair. 
 
 "I'm afraid I've been too long away from home," 
 he said, "and I never was much in politics anyway. 
 J. B. Thompson has a good record as governor of 
 the state of New York, and his party is standing 
 solidly behind him. We've come through a bad fi- 
 nancial year, and there's a lot of unemployment. Our 
 people have had a good many years of office. All 
 that, of course, is in favor of Mr. Thompson." 
 
 "Yes, yes," said the King, "it would be, I suppose. 
 But hasn't ex-President Lanchester a very great hold 
 upon the country?" 
 
 "Henry Lanchester has been out of practical poli- 
 tics for eight years. That's a long time, sir. I think 
 he will carry off the nomination all right " 
 
 "Oh, you do," said King Alfred, with obvious 
 relief. 
 
 "Oh, yes. His elimination would cost them too 
 many votes. But I doubt whether Lanchester can 
 win in industrial states like Pennsylvania and New 
 Jersey; and of course, as you know, sir, there are 
 certain foreign influences, particularly strong in the 
 state of New York, which will be dead against him
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 
 
 on account of his known attitude toward this 
 country." 
 
 "Yes," said the King smiling. "We have heard 
 something about that. I don't know, Mr. Corcoran, 
 what one ought to wish politically, or whether one 
 ought to wish at all, but I am afraid I must confess 
 that this election has a strong personal interest for 
 me. I know Mr. Lanchester so well, and admire 
 him so much " 
 
 "Really, sir?" 
 
 "Yes rather! I assure you he was almost the 
 only friend I had when I was being patched up in 
 the Adirondacks except Dr. Morrow and the best 
 one anybody could have. I often feel that I owe him 
 more than I can ever repay. So of course " 
 
 "You want to see him elected," smiled the Am- 
 bassador, as the King hesitated. "Well, so do I. 
 But I am afraid, sir, your cigar has gone out. May 
 I offer you another?"
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 THE Ambassador was right; in the end Henry 
 Lanchester received the nomination of his 
 party by an overwhelming majority. Mrs. 
 Phipps and his daughter heard of it in mid-Atlantic. 
 
 "What did I tell you, honey?" demanded Mrs. 
 Phipps, waving the marconigram at Hilary in their 
 stateroom. Did I or did I not say we might leave 
 it to James?" 
 
 Whether or not it was wholly due to James was 
 no doubt difficult in those whirling circumstances to 
 decide and now impossible ; but the fact remains that 
 the triumph was a great and notable one, and 
 launched Mr. Lanchester upon his campaign with 
 no overt disaffection in the ranks behind him. Mrs. 
 Phipps was true to her promise, and gave Hilary back 
 in time to be photographed beside him on the ob- 
 servation platform of the first special that took him 
 touring about the country. She was there for her 
 full value, tall and beautiful and happily smiling, with 
 her hand on his arm, there to be, as she always had 
 been, his solace and his delight. The gathering, ap-
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 plauding, listening world was glad to remember her 
 again; somebody on the reception committee always 
 had a wonderful bouquet for her. She was alone, 
 she was lovely, and it was known that Lanchester had 
 given her the price of the Silver Squaw in order that 
 he might not be embarrassed with it. The public 
 agreed to the transfer. 
 
 It was a thing a man might very well do for his 
 girl; and he heard little more about it. 
 
 The issue was incalculable. The Republicans 
 abode by their early choice of ex-Governor J. B. 
 Thompson, and squadrons of big business gathered 
 ominously behind him. There were unconfessed in- 
 surgents on both sides, who would commit themselves 
 only in the great silent vote. A superficial view de- 
 clared that Thompson was a man of business with a 
 spuare jaw, and that Lanchester was a happy optimist 
 with a long chin. Lanchester's character was ex- 
 ploited to his disadvantage. He was an idealist, 
 had always been an idealist, witness his unpopular 
 friendliness to England in the interpretation of the 
 findings of the Boundaries Patrol Commission, eight 
 years before. Certainly, later, the Hague had up- 
 held the ex-President, but such leanings were danger- 
 ous; it would have been more satisfactory if the 
 Hague had flown in his face. The foreign-born popu- 
 lation was strangely excited against him. They had 
 an active press, extraordinarily active, and there 
 
 314
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 seemed to be more money about for electioneering 
 purposes than could yet have been acquired even by 
 the well-known industry of such colonists. 
 
 Putting down the Sunday edition of an unexpected 
 convert to these views one morning, Lanchester said 
 to Hilary, 
 
 "It begins to look bad for the treaty, Hil, even if 
 we do get home." 
 
 She had not to nsk which treaty. They had often 
 talked of the fate of the instrument that President 
 Dickinson was lea , 'ng in coma, and of its chances 
 of coming back to 'ife in Lanchester's administra- 
 tion. Hilary knew her father's views and they made 
 the very tissue of her hopes. 
 
 "Why, father?" 
 
 "Well, I see they've pulled the Mercury over. 
 I've been warned Truscott was shaky. Let every 
 nation cast its bread upon the waters. We used to 
 send American dollars to Ireland; now after many 
 days we are getting them back at least I'm told 
 Truscott is. No, it looks bad for the treaty." 
 
 "You'll never give it up, daddy." 
 
 "I'll never give it up, but I may have to give up the 
 hope of seeing it through myself," said Lanchester. 
 "Which is a merely personal consideration of course. 
 It's only a question of time." 
 
 "Even as a personal consideration," said poor 
 Hilary, "I think it stands rather high." 
 
 315
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Then came the "facer" of the stolen telegram. 
 The day after, the convention at St. Louis offered 
 Henry Lanchester to the country as its choice for the 
 presidency. King Alfred of England sent his warm 
 congratulations and best wishes to Mr. Lanchester by 
 cable. It was one of those thoughtless things that 
 the King would sometimes do before breakfast, with- 
 out consulting anybody. It was only natural, as he 
 said to those who remonstrated afterwards, when a 
 friend goes into a big scrimmage, to buck him up a 
 bit if you can. And it had that effect ; it gave pleasure 
 to the recipient and newly warmed his heart toward 
 the young King carrying the unsought burden of the 
 state to which it had pleased God to call him, of 
 whom Lanchester had often thought with sympathy 
 as the years went on. There were telegrams from 
 many sorts of persons, and Lanchester pinned them 
 all on the wall above his desk; but there was only 
 one from a King, and a morning came when Hilary, 
 who looked at it often, found that it was gone. 
 Neither the floor nor the waste-paper basket nor 
 the rubbish bin would reveal it. Only Lanchester 
 had any clue at all, and he but faintly remembered 
 that a telegram had fallen from the wall to the 
 desk when he invited Sullivan to write a note there, 
 and that Sullivan had absent-mindedly been pleating 
 a scrap of paper between his fingers as they talked. 
 They had not long to wait, either for the apostasy 
 
 316
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 of Sullivan or the appearance of the telegram in the 
 Mercury. The head-lines were sickening. 
 
 THE KING OF ENGLAND ELECTS HENRY LANCHESTER 
 
 "We understand that the Only Henry, as he girded 
 on his armor for the fray, had the happiness of re- 
 ceiving the following cable from the young monarch 
 over the sea : 
 
 Congratulations on your nomination and my wishes for your 
 success. Alfred. 
 
 "They don't give Alfred R. much of a say in home 
 politics; so as he's an energetic young man he is 
 taking an interest in ours, and in the prospects of 
 England's best friend, Mr. Lanchester. Quite nice 
 and kind and right, Alfie. One good turn deserves an- 
 other. Will Henry Lanchester deny that he received 
 this telegram?" 
 
 Henry Lanchester could neither deny the telegram 
 nor ignore the use that had been made of it. To the 
 three party managers and the publicity man who 
 were in his library before he had finished breakfast 
 he said, 
 
 "My dear fellows, don't sit round like mutes at a 
 funeral. It's a knock, and Sullivan deserves boiling, 
 but I think we can make good. This is what I pro- 
 pose to publish." 
 
 The publicity man fell upon the typewritten slip. 
 
 317
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "The Associated Press is authorized to say that 
 the version of a private telegram stolen from Mr. 
 Lanchester's desk, as reproduced in the New York 
 Mercury, is incorrect. The text of the telegram runs 
 as follows: 
 
 Warm congratulations on your nomination and best wishes 
 for your success. Alfred R. 
 
 "The telegram was one of many from personal 
 friends, and Mr. Lanchester regrets that the rat who 
 sold it to the Mercury had not intelligence enough to 
 copy it correctly." 
 
 His advisers demurred, but Lanchester insisted. 
 
 "It will be ten times as damaging if I look ashamed 
 of it," he said, and the event justified him. The 
 uproar was tremendous, but when it had died down 
 it was not altogether certain that "Young Alfred's" 
 interest in his friend's election was altogether un- 
 pleasing to the country. Of course neither Lan- 
 chester nor any other American had the right to be 
 on such terms with a King. On the other hand, as 
 the stalwarts pointed out, such a view as that was 
 undoubtedly hard on the King. And in any case it 
 was generally admitted to be commendable that Lan- 
 chester hadn't "turned Alfred down." 
 
 But the other side made the most of it, and it 
 seemed to barb the arrows of J. B. Thompson when 
 he told thousands of people,
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Lanchester is a dictator, and if you re-elect him 
 to the presidency of this country you will never get rid 
 of him. He will cling to office till the day of his 
 death." 
 
 There were many who saw it like that. 
 
 But through it all "daughter Hilary" was tire- 
 less and undaunted. Her pulse throbbed with her 
 father's. She knew every line of his face, and daily 
 read the writing there of hope or of depression, 
 carefully as he tried to hide from her the tale of the 
 campaign when it bore against them. The news- 
 papers counted the tucks on her skirts, and tried to 
 lift her into the sphere of opinions. But for the 
 ladies who came to interview her she had only one 
 pleasant word. 
 
 "I know very little about politics, but I want my 
 father to win because I believe in him" 
 
 Nevertheless it gave their friends a watchword, 
 and they used it. J. B. Thompson, gray and arid 
 and certainly blameless, was running rather as the 
 chemical reaction of certain measures might run. 
 His worst enemy couldn't call him very human. No- 
 body particularly and personally believed in J. B. 
 Thompson, unless it was his wife. But the en- 
 thusiasm of his party, when the sediment had drained 
 off, was all for Lanchester the man. 
 
 It was a fluffy, foamy, noisy campaign beyond the 
 common, but under it the people were thinking all
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 the time, thinking not only of desiderata like economy 
 and efficiency, but of such fundamental things as 
 probity at home and honor abroad. And when the 
 day of decision came, because he seemed to give these 
 matters a suitable place among his country's ambi- 
 tions for the next four years, they elected Henry 
 Lanchester.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 BUT, daddy," remonstrated Hilary, "they're 
 absolutely as good as new." 
 
 They were in the Blue Room in the course 
 of a tour through the White House, planning how 
 the appropriation for up-keep should be spent. It 
 seemed to the President that the damask furnishings 
 of that state apartment might be replaced with ad- 
 vantage. "I don't like the pattern," he said. 
 
 "Don't you? Dear Mumsie Phipps chose it; I 
 helped her," remarked Hilary pensively. 
 
 "Oh, well, if we are going to be sentimental! 
 Perhaps underneath we should find one that I chose 
 myself," retorted Mr. Lanchester. "What about 
 the curtains, Hil?" 
 
 "They seem perfectly fresh." 
 
 "Another disappointment! A new carpet any- 
 way." 
 
 "I suppose we ought to have a new carpet," 
 Hilary agreed. "We might try for the same color." 
 
 "Now here," said the President, as they entered 
 the ballroom, "we can revel. Those tapestry panels, 
 
 321
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Hil really, you know; and such archaic, preten- 
 tious, frivolous things as these; quite unsuited to a 
 democratic country. To the lumber room with 
 them!" 
 
 "Those two little gold chairs you would banish 
 them! Indeed, Mr.. President, you sha'n't. I love 
 those little gold chairs," cried Hilary. "I don't care 
 about the tapestries ; the Dickinsons put them up and 
 they're hideous; but the dear Phippses sat on those 
 chairs, father." 
 
 "Then they must need overhauling at least," said 
 her parent firmly. "But, Hil, this is depressing, you 
 know. I had hoped to be led into a perfect debauch 
 of extravagance, to be obliged to remind you that 
 you were spending the people's money; and you 
 round on me like this." 
 
 "I rather like keeping things as they were. I've so 
 much looked forward to seeing them again, dad as 
 they were. It's a darling, beautiful ballroom. But 
 those Dickinson panels shall be razed to the ground; 
 then it will be almost quite as it was." 
 
 "Well," said the President, looking at his watch, 
 "I must be thinking of earning my living. Temple- 
 ton is coming at ten." 
 
 Templeton was Chairman of the Committee on 
 Foreign Relations. 
 
 "Father, is he going to talk about the treaty?" 
 
 "I think he is going to talk chiefly about the claims 
 
 322
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 of his son-in-law to be consul-general at Paris," said 
 her father; "but he may have something to say 
 about the treaty if I encourage him to do so. He'll 
 need some encouragement. The treaty is very sound 
 asleep, daughter." 
 
 "Well, encourage him. You might give him the 
 consul-generalship for his son-in-law and then encour- 
 age him," said the unscrupulous Hilary. "You know 
 I consider, dad, that the country has sent you here 
 to put that treaty through. It's the only conclusion 
 anybody could come to." 
 
 "Is it?" said her father grimly. "My lamb, if 
 the treaty had been an active issue I'm afraid we 
 shouldn't be here." 
 
 "But you have always said the people wanted it." 
 
 "They don't want it at election time; and a few 
 friends have managed to make me look rather too 
 nice in a court suit, Hil. Any sort of treaty sticking 
 out of the pocket " 
 
 "Court suits," interrupted Hilary, "have no pock- 
 ets on the outside anyway. You are given buckles 
 on your shoes and a sword instead; black velvet you 
 wear, and a cocked hat. And you carry it up your 
 sleeve." 
 
 "The hat?" 
 
 "No; that is worn under the arm. Your hand- 
 kerchief, of course." 
 
 Her father faced round upon her. "Do you 
 
 323
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 know," he asked severely, "that New York's greatest 
 newspaper to-day called you the Daughter of the 
 Democracy I omit the adjective; you are quite vain 
 enough as it is you, who this morning instruct your 
 father as to the correct pocket in which to carry his 
 hat when he goes to court? How does a girl know 
 these things! I am forced to believe, Hilary, that 
 you have somewhere about you the makings of an 
 anglomaniac." 
 
 They had reached the door of the library. A 
 messenger passed them with the bag from the post- 
 office on his way to the secretary's room. Hilary, 
 with her eyes on the bag, forgot to laugh at her 
 father's pleasantry. The English mail should be 
 there, an English mail for which, ever since the last, 
 Hilary's heart had been ticking with the clock. 
 
 "May I come in and get my letters?" she asked 
 nervously. 
 
 "Do," said he. "Read them here, if you like. 
 I'm taking it easy this morning. Nobody before 
 Templeton." 
 
 Henry Lanchester's lean person slipped comfort- 
 ably into the revolving chair in which he had written 
 his last letter from the White House eight years 
 before, and which he was occupying again with, if 
 anything, a deeper sense of responsibility and a wider 
 perception of power. He took from the top of a 
 pile a letter with a red tag and began to read it. A 
 
 324
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 slip hung from the letter, upon which fluttered plain 
 in the handwriting of the President's private secre- 
 tary the words, "and advances this argument." 
 Hilary walked to the window, wondering who ad- 
 vanced the argument and what it was, and whether 
 it would greatly affect her father's mind upon the 
 resuscitation of the treaty of arbitration and alliance 
 with England. As a matter of fact it had to do with 
 an American railway loan to China ; but Hilary just 
 now had only one formula for the foreign business 
 of her country. 
 
 The stenographer came in, learned that he would 
 not be wanted until twelve, and withdrew. Spring 
 scents drifted through the open window; down on 
 the lawn a fat robin hopped among the fallen blos- 
 soms of a big horse-chestnut tree. Hilary stood 
 looking at him. He hopped across a wider prospect 
 than the White House lawn, a far, frightening pros- 
 pect. Hilary would not see it; she was glad to 
 watch the robin instead. It was likely, more than 
 likely, to be for to-day. Her last letter had given 
 her full warning. Sitting there in his chair, all un- 
 prepared and unaware, her father would presently 
 be confronted by their great, their overwhelming 
 secret, would become a party to it, not only as her 
 father, but as President of the United States. And 
 already he had so much to think of, her dear old 
 dad, already from morning to night he was followed 
 
 325
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 by such a herd of contingencies. And now she 
 Hilary who had always tried to spare him, must 
 bring him, in her very hand, truly the most dumb- 
 foundering situation of them all. Desperately sorry 
 for her father she felt, as her glance stole over his 
 lined face just desperately sorry. The robin flew 
 away. Vacancy on the lawn. Nothing to look at 
 but the Prospect. How long they were taking in 
 the Secretary's office in sorting out their private 
 letters ! 
 
 Presently Secretary Kennedy himself appeared at 
 the door and, seeing her, retreated. Her heart came 
 into her throat. Could it be that Alfred had written 
 to her father and forgotten to put "Private" on the 
 envelope? Could it be that Kennedy already knew? 
 No, she told herself with a frightened flash of laugh- 
 ter, Kennedy would have fainted at the door. 
 
 The President put down the tagged letter, and 
 took up his notebook, a thick, portentous notebook 
 bound in leather. There would be time to enter the 
 main points of his reply. 
 
 But his daughter Hilary, usually so tranquil in 
 her movements, so still in her repose, and this morn- 
 ing restless as a canary, dropped into a chair at his 
 side. 
 
 "Father, dear, isn't it very desirable that Mr. 
 Templeton should know just how strongly you feel 
 about this question of the treaty?" 
 
 326
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Desirable from whose point of view Temple- 
 ton's, the Senate's, the country's, or mine?" 
 
 "From from everybody's," floundered Hilary. 
 
 Her father regarded her gravely. "My dear, I 
 can't help thinking that you are a little obsessed by 
 that matter," he said. "Why worry about it? Not 
 good for you, my girl ! Go and ring up Kitty Ken- 
 nedy, and get her to play golf with you." 
 
 Go and play golf with Kitty Kennedy, and leave 
 the President perhaps to commit himself to the view 
 that the treaty with England might be consigned 
 indefinitely to the limbo of Utopian politics! 
 
 "Yes, dad, I will. But do tell me have you set- 
 tled in your own mind your line about the treaty?" 
 
 "My line is, Hil, and always has been, that that 
 instrument, when it is made effective, will be the ab- 
 solute political insurance of every nation that uses 
 the English language, and the greatest power for 
 good on earth. We know that in one very simple 
 way by the character of the opposition it excites. 
 My line is, and always has been, that it's the greatest 
 political cause in the world. By whether ah, here's 
 the mail!" 
 
 Hilary sat motionless, mesmerized by the little 
 pile on the desk. It was there the big square en- 
 velope in the handwriting she knew so well! Her 
 eyes followed it helplessly as her father took it up 
 and broke the seal. 
 
 32?
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "Three for you, Hil. What a fat one from West- 
 minster! If you were a political young woman I 
 should think you were corresponding with His Maj- 
 esty's House of Commons with a view to pulling off 
 that treaty. Hullo! here's a letter from His Maj- 
 esty himself. On the whole I'm glad he's got out 
 of the habit of using the cable." 
 
 Hilary, with a hand that dragged a little, picked 
 up her letters. She looked at the door and longed 
 to get upon her feet and go to any spot where there 
 were neither kings nor presidents; her own room 
 would be the perfect place. But she could not leave 
 her father alone with the news in that letter. 
 Neither could she sit still so near him while he read 
 it. He had put it down for an instant to rub up his 
 glasses. They would need rubbing up ! Hilary rose 
 and walked casually, tremblingly, over to the win- 
 dow, where she opened her own thick letter with the 
 Westminster postmark. 
 
 "You'll be interested in this, Hil." 
 
 She would be interested in it! 
 
 She had opened the fat letter from Westminster, 
 and it was shaking in her hand. 
 
 "It's really a charming letter; he seems genuinely 
 pleased. You must read it. But don't leave it lying 
 about. He sends kind remembrances to Mrs. Phipps. 
 Odd that there's no message for you. I suppose 
 little girls don't exist officially over there. Well, 
 
 328
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 I'm about due at the offices. I mustn't keep Temple- 
 ton waiting." 
 
 "Father!" 
 
 "Yes, Hil? What is it? You know you mustn't 
 keep me now, dear; I'm " 
 
 "It isn't odd that there's no message, father. 
 I've I've heard myself." 
 
 "Have you, girlie? Well, that's all right." 
 
 "And and there's another letter for you, father. 
 Here it is." 
 
 She held it out to him at arm's length clinging to 
 the window. They had kept the bond between them, 
 Alfred and she ; he was to tell her father, but at her 
 good time and pleasure. This was his way of find- 
 ing out what her good time and pleasure were. And 
 partly because of her fears for the treaty, but chiefly 
 because her heart refused to bear its burden any 
 longer, she had brought herself to the decision that 
 the moment must be now. 
 
 She stood holding the letter out and shrinking 
 against the window recess. Lanchester crossed over 
 to take it, looking at her through his glasses rather 
 humorously. "Why, it isn't so exciting as that, is 
 it?" he smiled, and stowed the letter in his breast 
 pocket. "I'll read it when I come back?" 
 
 But she had her arms round his neck. "No, no, 
 father; no, no! It is rather exciting. You must 
 read it now you must! I " 
 
 329
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 He saw with amazement that her eyes were shut 
 and that tears were raining down her face. She 
 clung to him so, struggling with great sobs, but in- 
 sistent insistent about something. "Why, daugh- 
 ter," he said with tenderness, and put his arm around 
 her and put her into a chair. There he stood help- 
 lessly, patting her shoulder. "Why, daughter, 
 what " As she did not speak again he saw, in- 
 deed, that she could not he took the letter out of 
 his pocket. "Why, certainly, dear; I'll read it now, 
 if you wish me to." 
 
 As he opened it Henry Lanchester had a flash of 
 remembrance that it was a young man as well as the 
 King of England who thus addressed him, a little 
 oddly, through his daughter. Unfolding the pages, 
 he sent an austere glance over his spectacles out of 
 the window; but there was no counsel among the 
 tree tops. He looked again at Hilary. She had 
 hidden her face. A sudden apprehension beset him; 
 there was romance here. Romance, without leave, 
 filled the room threatened, as he looked at Hilary, 
 to fill his heart. But how could a King of England 
 bring romance to his house? There was none to 
 abide that question. He drew a chair near to 
 Hilary's, took it, and plunged into the letter. 
 
 As he turned the first page he put out his hand 
 toward his daughter and Hilary's crept into it, and 
 that was the only movement he made till the end. 
 
 330
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 He read the last page twice, and still no sign. Then 
 carefully he read the letter over again. Hilary, not 
 daring to look, felt her heart beat to a slower meas- 
 ure. If she could have believed it would be as quiet 
 as this! If she could have thought that this, only 
 this, was to be the scene of her forebodings! Still 
 her father made no movement, except to fold the 
 letter, and when he spoke his words did not seem 
 altogether for her. 
 
 "Dear fellow," he said. "Dear fellow." And 
 after a moment "It's the boy in the Adirondacks, 
 Hil it's just the boy in the Adirondacks, come to 
 great estate. We loved him there, didn't we? I 
 loved him there, too, daughter. And now this 
 seems either just a pretty fairy tale or a very serious 
 matter indeed. But he's a dear fellow, girlie." 
 
 He was stroking her hand now. 
 
 Hilary sobbed, and in an instant she was in her 
 father's lap with her arms around his neck. "Yes, 
 he isj isn't he, daddy? Oh, he is! And it has been 
 so awfully lonely for him, daddy all these years ! 
 Awfully lonely you know." 
 
 "Yes, yes, dear." 
 
 "Hasn't hasn't hasn't it, father?" 
 
 "Of course it has, my dear. Yes, yes; of course!" 
 
 "And he he isn't strong father." 
 
 "No, dear; not very strong, I'm afraid; but pretty 
 well, isn't he, nowadays?" He was stroking her
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 hair, but she had not yet looked up. "Wonderfully 
 well, from all I hear; and everything on his side, my 
 dear youth, hope, and you! Think of your old 
 crock of a father, and what a giant you and the 
 doctors have made even of him." 
 
 The girl's arm crept closer about Lanchester's 
 thin neck and a wet kiss brushed his cheek. "Father, 
 I want to I should like to take care of him now. 
 Don't you think I might? Don't you think I ought? 
 No matter what " She had lifted her head 
 and was looking at him at last with her brave ques- 
 tion. 
 
 Half unconsciously he took her hands from about 
 his neck, as if he restored her to herself. "There's 
 only one answer to that, daughter. If you ought, 
 you may no matter what. And I suppose I sup- 
 pose I shouldn't be expected to grudge you." His 
 smile had just that hint of winter in it which comes 
 in the smile of any father who is asked by anybody 
 on earth for all that he has. "And now we must 
 think," he added. 
 
 At that she started up. "Oh, yes, father, you 
 must think!" Hope showed behind her wet lashes. 
 She pulled a chair nearer and sat down, clasping her 
 knees and bending toward him a face that was still 
 very pitiful. "And oh, daddy darling," she told 
 him, "if you could realize the blessed comfort it is 
 that at last you know" 
 
 332
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "I expect it is, daughter," he said. "These secret 
 affairs are always wearing." 
 
 "And this was more wearing than most," Hilary 
 said humbly. 
 
 "Naturally, daughter; that must have been 
 
 so." 
 
 "It was a thoughtless thing to do what we did, 
 daddy. But if you knew how he hated the idea of 
 Sophy Sternburg. And Heaven knows we meant to 
 live on a farm." 
 
 "You didn't know, you couldn't have known, at 
 all what you were doing, either of you," the Presi- 
 dent told her. 
 
 Silence came between them for a moment, and 
 with it came great considerations and stood in the 
 room. Henry Lanchester's eye, looking over his 
 daughter's head, grew suddenly bright. He took a 
 long breath, as if to make room in his heart for 
 some familiar vision new come home. He sat quietly 
 so for a little, the stain deepening among the fur- 
 rows of his cheek, looking again and again at the 
 letter; but a word escaped him before he began to 
 question her which showed what thought was riding 
 on his blood. 
 
 "England . . ." he said musingly. "England 
 rocked our cradles, Hil, over here. Yes. And de- 
 fended them." 
 
 Then he asked her for a detail here and a detail 
 
 333
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 there, though there was little more that she could 
 tell him. Alfred had sent a scrupulous chronicle. 
 
 "He writes very sensibly. He presses for the 
 treaty if possible before the marriage. He thinks 
 that it would be more difficult afterwards. He is 
 right. It would be." 
 
 "Then you don't think our marrying alto- 
 gether impracticable, father?" 
 
 "How can it be impracticable when it is already 
 done?" The President swung round upon her. 
 "We have not to consider its practicability, thank 
 Heaven ! Nor do I feel altogether disposed," he went 
 on, "to think too much of that side of it. It's true 
 he's a king, but you, little one, are not precisely," he 
 smiled at her, "a beggar maid." 
 
 "You mean the Silver Squaw," she ventured. 
 
 "No," he answered absently, "I don't mean the 
 Silver Squaw." 
 
 The matter seemed to grow, there in the room, 
 too momentous to be discussed. Their talk was like 
 the flying and settling of harbor birds about some 
 great ship moving slowly, disregardingly into port. 
 The President, at all events, seemed to feel it so. 
 He lapsed again into silence, and his face began to 
 wear the impersonal look with which he fronted 
 heavy affairs of all kinds. He hardly looked at 
 Hilary, so detached, so busily constructive was the 
 gleam in his eyes. It was as if, having lighted that 
 
 334
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 torch, she might as well go out of the room. She 
 could not long bear, poor Hilary, to be so lost, being 
 new to the part of a bride blessed by politics, though 
 not, in her happy case, by politics only. She sat 
 through another moment and then got up a little 
 unsteadily. 
 
 "I know, father, it's awfully important. Don't 
 think I don't know. And you are President, and 
 Alfred is King, and of course you both want the 
 treaty above everything on earth. But, father" 
 her voice quivered and broke "I'm me!" 
 
 With quick compunction* the President came over 
 to her, and put his arm about her, and kissed her. 
 "Ah, my dear," he said, "what should any of us do 
 without you?" Then he held her at arm's length, 
 proudly, for an instant, and looked her up and down. 
 "And how long am I to have for the treaty?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "I thought about six weeks. Alfred says he won't 
 keep you waiting," she told him happily. 
 
 "Alfred! Six weeks!" exclaimed the President 
 with a glorious laugh. "I wish he had some of my 
 committees. You will give me a year, please, Your 
 Majesties. Yes, perhaps in a year " 
 
 A moment or two later the telephone bell on the 
 private secretary's desk rang sharply, and Mr. Ken- 
 nedy received a message. The President much re- 
 gretted that unforeseen circumstances would prevent 
 
 335
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 his keeping his appointment with Mr. Templeton that 
 morning. Would Mr. Kennedy kindly make a per- 
 sonal explanation, please, and postpone the interview 
 to the President's earliest possible free hour next 
 week? Would Mr. Kennedy kindly make a point in 
 the meantime of looking up the docket of the Anglo- 
 American Arbitration Treaty of the year before, 
 with the particulars of the vote in the Senate on 
 Article III, the particulars of the vote on the aliens' 
 amendment, "and any other old particulars" there 
 was an extraordinary ring in the President's voice, 
 Kennedy thought that might be available ? 
 
 "So he's going to have a shot at it," Kennedy said 
 to himself with the receiver in his hand. "Well, he's 
 the only man in these United States that can make 
 it politics, and as the other side is pretty well bound 
 to come in next time anyhow " 
 
 Then from the instrument came the small, serious 
 sound of words not intended for the secretary's ear: 
 " This makes a very great difference, Hilary" 
 
 "Wonderful influence that girl has with him," ob- 
 served Mr. Kennedy to himself.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 ON a dripping morning in April a year later, 
 three people of importance drove, one after 
 another, to the north door of Buckingham 
 Palace and were there discharged and received. 
 Lord Caversham, of Bury, the Prime Minister, was 
 the first to arrive in his motor, enter the lift and 
 be taken by a tall young man in uniform to the room 
 in which the King usually gave non-ceremonial audi- 
 ences. Then rolled up the carriage of the Princess 
 Georgina, Duchess of Altenburg, the cockades of 
 her coachman and footman all diamonded by the 
 rain. She in turn ascended in the lift, and went 
 along the corridor chatting with the young man in 
 uniform, and was launched into the presence of the 
 Prime Minister, to whom she almost curtsied by mis- 
 take. Last and almost late, Sir Bute Rivers, For- 
 eign Secretary, hurried in out of a taxi, bringing a 
 despatch-box, of which the young man in uniform 
 relieved him, as he, too, was conducted to the room 
 where chairs near the table were already occupied 
 by the Prime Minister and the Princess Georgina. 
 
 337
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 They spoke about the weather, disguising, as such 
 great people have learned to disguise it, their inter- 
 est in anything more unusual than the way it had 
 poured in the night and thundered before breakfast. 
 Only the eyes of the Princess, wandering circum- 
 spectly about the room, rested at length, thoughtful- 
 ly, upon the despatch-box on the table. 
 
 A moment later another equerry entered. "His 
 Majesty the King," he said, and Alfred walked into 
 the room. 
 
 His subjects rose to take his pleasure, and waited, 
 with a wonderful grave deference of attitude and of 
 glance, the approach of the slight figure. Who shall 
 speak of that gesture of the heart toward the King? 
 Very boyish still, he came to meet them, confident 
 of their tenderness and their homage, for a thou- 
 sand years the symbol of their race. . . . And 
 as they looked at him there out of their lined 
 faces, wrapped in their own interests and con- 
 ventions and personalities as they were, he was 
 more than life to any one of them. Which was 
 no new thing either, but as it had been for a thou- 
 sand years. 
 
 In response to his aunt's curtsey Alfred kissed her, 
 shook hands cordially with his ministers, and said to 
 Sir Bute Rivers: "Have you brought it?" 
 
 "Corcoran ratified yesterday afternoon, sir," said 
 
 338
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 the Foreign Secretary, unlocking the despatch-box. 
 "The ink is hardly dry," he smiled, and unfolded a 
 document. 
 
 The King glanced at the signatures. 
 
 "I congratulate you, Sir Bute," he said; and then 
 to them all: "Pray sit down." 
 
 He himself took the high-backed chair at the end 
 of the table, facing the door. Lord Caversham, the 
 picture of genial influence, sat at his right; the Prin- 
 cess Georgina placed herself affectionately at his left; 
 the Foreign Secretary drew a chair under the lean 
 and acute personality that belonged to him in line 
 with hers. The despatch-box lay on the table; and 
 the treaty of arbitration and alliance between Eng- 
 land and the United States of America lay in the 
 despatch-box. 
 
 The Princess said to herself that the King was 
 looking better than he had done for months. Never- 
 theless she took in certain signs in his general bear- 
 ing with some anxiety. "He is going to be difficult," 
 she murmured to herself. "Whatever it is, he is 
 going to be difficult." She pulled the black veil, 
 raised to receive her nephew's salute, firmly down 
 to her chin and sat up very straight. Lord Caver- 
 sham put one finger in his waistcoat pocket. Sir Bute 
 Rivers swung a leg. 
 
 "I have asked you three to come here informally 
 like this," Alfred began, "because I have something 
 
 339
 
 ] HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 to communicate which I think you three ought to be 
 the first to know." 
 
 A tremor passed through the hand and wrist 
 which the Princess Georgina had laid, in its black 
 kid glove, on the table. Her worst suspicion, a ter- 
 rible foe to her peace, flashed through her. Alfred 
 had not married in order the more conveniently, at 
 the first propitious moment, to abdicate. Was the 
 crown, then, at last to be thrown to the demagogues? 
 Louder than ever they were howling, the dema- 
 gogues, in the reign of King Alfred the Second. She 
 did not dare to glance at the Prime Minister, who 
 was giving his sovereign a pleased and confident at- 
 tention. Bute Rivers looked at the inkstand on the 
 table. 
 
 "You, Princess, are my nearest relative. You, 
 Caversham, stand to me for the country; you, Sir 
 Bute, for everything outside it. That's why I've got 
 you together like this." 
 
 A slight shade passed into the attentive regard of 
 Lord Caversham. Princess Georgina's little finger, 
 which had been restless, ceased to move. 
 
 "First, I wish to say a word about this treaty, not 
 from the point of view of the Anglo-Saxon race 
 we all feel it's a jolly good thing for the Anglo- 
 Saxon race but from England's. Here I've got to 
 speak with modesty, I know, before you, Lord 
 Caversham, and with care before you, Sir Bute. But 
 
 340
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 we all know how things are with England. I'm not 
 going to talk about the upheaval of the manual in- 
 terest or the difficulty of getting money for any sort 
 of war purpose. But" he took a pamphlet from 
 his breast pocket "have any of you seen that?" 
 
 On the red paper cover, in plain, black lettering, 
 ran the title: 
 
 WILL ENGLAND BREAK AWAY FROM THE EMPIRE? 
 
 and underneath: 
 
 WHY NOT? 
 
 They considered it in turn. The Prime Minister 
 smiled sadly. Princess Georgina uttered the word, 
 "Abominable." Sir Bute Rivers looked as con- 
 temptuous as a man might in the presence of his 
 King. 
 
 "I point it out to you only as a straw. But you 
 see one hundred and eleven thousand of these straws 
 have been sold; not distributed sold at threepence. 
 And it is written by Andrew Organ, the man who 
 leads the Labor Party in the House of Commons. 
 Well, Sir Bute?" 
 
 A word was obviously trembling on the Foreign 
 Secretary's lips. "Organ told me himself, sir, that 
 in his opinion, if the treaty came through, this coun- 
 try would be more cheaply defended inside the 
 Federation than out," said he. 
 
 34i
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "He must be an insincere sort of beggar then," 
 Alfred replied, "to have written a thing like this." 
 
 'Electioneering, I fear, sir. Mere electioneer- 
 ing." 
 
 "Mere electioneering," said the King, and looked 
 at them, first one and then another. "Is it so bad 
 as that?" 
 
 His ministers had no answer ready. The Princess 
 sighed. 
 
 "The First Lord was informed from Ottawa last 
 night," remarked Lord Caversham pleasantly, "that 
 the Canadians would budget a million for Air this 
 year." 
 
 "Dollars?" asked Sir Bute. 
 
 "Pounds," said Lord Caversham. 
 
 "That's good hearing. But Canada has lately 
 been doing rather more than the people will stand," 
 the King said. "We don't want to see the Gordon 
 government turned out over an imperial defences 
 appropriation." 
 
 "No, we don't," said Lord Caversham. 
 
 "You will perhaps wonder what my point is," Al- 
 fred went on, "now that the treaty is accomplished." 
 
 They did wonder. Princess Georgina turned 
 upon him a face which said dutifully, "All in your 
 Majesty's good time," but which also expressed im- 
 mense relief. If he had dreamed of abdication he 
 would not be making such a fuss about a treaty. 
 
 342
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "The treaty is ratified. Sir Bute has told me that 
 both the Americans and ourselves have had to fight 
 the continent of Europe to get it. It's a great treaty; 
 it gives Anglo-Saxon affairs the benefit of business 
 management, and it brings us all together against 
 outside interference; but its enemies in the Senate 
 have succeeded in throwing one or two clauses, in 
 certain circumstances, under the necessity of interpre- 
 tation. Sir Bute has kindly brought the treaty this 
 morning so that, if necessary, we could consider 
 those clauses." 
 
 "For my part," said Lord Caversham agreeably, 
 "I've been kept in touch. Thanks to you, Rivers, I 
 think I know what we might call the weak spot to 
 which His Majesty refers." 
 
 "I am all too familiar with it," remarked Sir Bute; 
 and the Princess Georgina bowed in a manner which 
 said that she entirely accepted the situation, what- 
 ever it was. 
 
 "I thought you would say that," said King Alfred. 
 He was still, Lord Caversham thought, extraordi- 
 narily youthful in his manner sometimes. "So we 
 can get on." 
 
 He paused for a moment nevertheless, and seemed 
 to take counsel with himself. Then the lines of his 
 face grew firmer, although his lips were quite com- 
 posed and pleasant as he said: 
 
 "That weak spot means that, in spite of all my 
 
 343
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 friend, President Lanchester, has been able to do on 
 his side we know under what difficulties and we 
 on ours, the intention of the treaty in one very im- 
 portant particular will be dictated by the good will 
 of the American people. And the effectiveness of 
 that good will is and must be embarrassed by influ- 
 ences not friendly to us, which are only half Amer- 
 ican and which will, in response to suggestion from 
 Europe, always attempt, so far as we can see, to 
 give a direction to American foreign policy." 
 
 The Prime Minister nodded slowly. The Prin- 
 cess Georgina suppressed a little yawn, looked dread- 
 fully ashamed and pulled down her veil more briskly 
 than ever. 
 
 "I know you will agree with me that anything that 
 can be done on this side to safeguard that good will 
 ought to be done." He looked at them one after 
 the other in a way that made it a question. 
 
 "By all means," said Lord Caversham. 
 
 "Everything in reason," said the Foreign Sec- 
 retary. 
 
 "Anything that / can do," murmured the Princess. 
 "Those international guild fetes last August one 
 can at all events just appear with a pleasant word or 
 two " 
 
 "Very well," said Alfred. "I have determined 
 myself to take a step in that direction. I am accus- 
 tomed to arguments that deal with my marriage as 
 
 344
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 a national asset, and lay before me the duty of 
 cementing this or that European friendship to Eng- 
 land. I do not say that such considerations should 
 or shall dictate my marriage; but that is the aspect 
 in which you may all properly claim to be consulted 
 about it and that is the aspect in which I lay it be- 
 fore you. I hope to receive your approval of my 
 intention to propose marriage to Hilary, daughter 
 of Henry Lanchester, president of the United 
 States." 
 
 The Princess Georgina's hand, transfixed on its 
 way to her veil, fell upon the table. "/ feared it!" 
 she exclaimed, and with a despairing motion of the 
 head threw the situation without reserve before the 
 Prime Minister. All the safeguards of the consti- 
 tution went into his lap with that gesture. "Heavens, 
 Lord Caversham!" she cried, as for a moment he 
 did not speak, "don't twiddle your thumbs! Tell the 
 King he is mad!" 
 
 Lord Caversham ceased to twiddle them, looked 
 very thoughtful, paternal, a little sad. Sir Bute 
 Rivers sat restraining himself, shaking his foot from 
 the ankle. 
 
 "I fully recognize I think we all must the ad- 
 mirable purpose which Your Majesty has in view in 
 suggesting this step," the Prime Minister began. 
 
 "I don't suggest it, Caversham. I'm afraid you 
 must understand that I intend it." 
 
 345
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 The Princess, with an inaudible "Oh !" lifted both 
 her hands and dropped them again. 
 
 "Then we may take it, sir, that you have er 
 graciously sent for us in order that we may be in- 
 formed," said Lord Caversham with suavity. 
 
 "Partly," said Alfred; "and partly in order that 
 you, as my ministers, may place before me any prac- 
 tical difficulty there may be in my way with a view 
 to finding the best means to overcome it." 
 
 His ministers, for the first time, glanced at each 
 other. 
 
 "Perhaps, sir," said Sir Bute, "in a matter of such 
 extraordinary importance, some opportunity for pri- 
 vate conference Our colleagues " 
 
 "By all means as to details and so on later," 
 the King replied; "but I want to know, here and 
 now, if you don't mind, what you two think. Please 
 be quite open." 
 
 "Looking at Your Majesty's proposal from the 
 outside as I understand it is Your Majesty's desire 
 that I should do it would be considered, I fear, a 
 subversionary act by other courts of Europe," said 
 Sir Bute Rivers. "It would be thought to be laying 
 an axe at the root of all monarchical tradition." 
 
 "I suppose you were bound to put that before me, 
 Sir Bute. But I have no such respect for the remain- 
 ing courts of Europe that I feel compelled to make 
 great personal sacrifices to retain their good opin- 
 
 346
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 ion," Alfred told him. "What I care chiefly about 
 in this matter is what my own people will feel. My 
 people are my family. I want them, of course, to 
 love my wife and to approve of my marriage." 
 
 Lord Caversham's thumbs were again slowly re- 
 volving. "So far as the statutes are concerned," he 
 said, "I believe that except for the religious disability 
 there is nothing to prevent the sovereign from mar- 
 rying whom he pleases. The matter would neces- 
 sarily come before Parliament only in the form of a 
 vote for provision." 
 
 "Of that I should be independent," said Alfred. 
 "I have my mother's money, and Miss Lanchester 
 has a silver mine or the price of it," he added, col- 
 oring boyishly. 
 
 "The throne of England cannot be bought with 
 a silver mine!" exclaimed Princess Georgina, and 
 took out her handkerchief. 
 
 "The throne of England is not for sale, Aunt 
 Georgina. Perhaps, now that you have heard " 
 
 But the Princess, with her unoccupied hand, 
 clutched the table. "N-nothing," she succeeded 
 in saying, "will induce me to leave this spot except 
 your absolute c-c-command, Alfred." 
 
 "Then where are your salts?" he asked sternly. 
 
 She found and applied them. The moment passed, 
 the triviality of a great hour. All great hours have 
 them. 
 
 347
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "The vote for provision would have to come," 
 said Lord Caversham. "As Her Royal Highness 
 suggests, you would hardly expect the people of 
 England to permit their throne to be financed with 
 foreign money, sir." 
 
 "American dollars!" murmured the Princess into 
 her handkerchief. 
 
 "I don't know," said Alfred calmly, "why we 
 should be so sensitive nowadays about American dol- 
 lars. It was trying to get too many of them or 
 their equivalent that lost us the country." 
 
 "I may suggest to you, sir, that the character and 
 the result of such a debate might do more harm to 
 international good will than the marriage might do 
 good," Lord Caversham went on. 
 
 "I am always being put off with that!" exclaimed 
 Alfred. 
 
 The Prime Minister slowly opened his eyes. 
 "Put off by whom?" he may have reflected. 
 
 "It entirely depends upon the feeling of the coun- 
 try. Parliament is a democratic concern. And I 
 believe the people of the country would show any 
 government the way out, that tried to snub my wife." 
 He was very royal in his high-backed chair, as he 
 said that. His aunt glanced at him with trembling 
 admiration. Sir Bute Rivers sank from the Right 
 Honorable the Foreign Secretary into the third 
 baronet. Lord Caversham looked suddenly aroused, 
 
 348
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 as if he gathered, for the first time, that he would be 
 obliged to cope with something. 
 
 "Your Majesty," he said, "I cannot conscien- 
 tiously lead you to believe that your proposal could 
 be seriously entertained by any of us who have the 
 honor to advise you. The Crown and all that belongs 
 to it is too dear to the country, and the risk to the 
 Crown would be too great. Such an alliance would 
 be resented by the whole fabric of the aristocracy, 
 upon which the English monarchy reposes to what 
 point I dare not ask you to look." 
 
 "Oh, Alfred," moaned the Princess Georgina, 
 "give her up!" 
 
 The King smiled ever so slightly. "My dear 
 Caversham," he said, "the English monarchy reposes 
 on the hearts of the English people and nowhere else, 
 and the whole fabric of the aristocracy may jolly 
 well put its head in a bag. But I was afraid I would 
 find your views still clouded by these old obsessions. 
 I should like to persuade you that they belong to 
 the political childhood of this country, but I'm afraid 
 there isn't time. I take it they are your views 
 finally?" 
 
 "I fear that no reconsideration could alter them," 
 Lord Caversham said. 
 
 "They are certainly mine," said Sir Bute Rivers. 
 
 "And mine," repeated Princess Georgina, not 
 without a ray of apprehension in her glance. 
 
 349
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "I thought they might be," said the King. "Now, 
 I will tell you something else." He leaned forward 
 and touched the electric button on the table. 
 
 To the inscrutable person in black who appeared, 
 he said : "Mr. Youghall is in my study, Bates. Ask 
 Major Coningsby to bring him here."
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 IT'S still raining," the King remarked, turning 
 in his chair to look out of the tall window, as 
 they waited for Youghall to appear. 
 
 The Princess blew her nose for response. Lord 
 Caversham, lost in his waistcoat, apparently did not 
 hear. Sir Bute Rivers said, "It is," with non- 
 committal air. 
 
 They sat plainly in opposing forces there in the 
 lofty, dignified room in Buckingham Palace with the 
 windy April morning dripping and storming on out- 
 side among the trees of the palace garden the 
 King, young and confident, alone against usage and 
 tradition, the high custom of his ancestors in the 
 Princess, the pride of the Kingdom in Lord Caver- 
 sham, the scorn of his fellow monarchs in the Foreign 
 Secretary. There they sat, silent out of respect to 
 him, ranged solidly against him in this thing that he 
 wished to do and only just convinced that their hos- 
 tility must be serious ; one thinking of the prestige of 
 royalty, another of his own great governing world, 
 and another of the face with which he should meet 
 
 35i
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 the ambassadors of Europe on the next occasion. 
 And outside, but not too far away, roared the com- 
 monwealth. 
 
 Alfred lifted his head and listened, as he often 
 did to that sound, with a smile. 
 
 The door opened; the equerry walked in. "Mr. 
 Arthur Youghall, sir." 
 
 The Princess looked around as Youghall entered, 
 and did not like the confidence with which he seemed 
 to be restoring his handkerchief to his breast pocket. 
 Little things have an extraordinary power to indi- 
 cate. "Why, in any case, send for this nobody?" 
 she asked herself. 
 
 But Alfred was indeed most incalculable. 
 
 "Will you sit here, Youghall?" said the King, in- 
 dicating a chair near him, one a little detached from 
 the group at the table. "I think you know every- 
 body? I have asked you to join us in this informal 
 discussion, because you are familiar with some of 
 the facts that are involved and will be able to correct 
 my recollection of them if necessary." 
 
 Youghall bowed, first to his sovereign and then to 
 the little council. He took the chair and drew some 
 notes from his pocket. His manner was deplorably 
 parliamentary. 
 
 "Mr. Youghall," said the King to the company, 
 "is acquainted with the intention of which I have 
 told you, and perhaps will be able to help us in con- 
 
 352
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 sidering to what extent it should be influenced by a 
 certain circumstance." 
 
 Alfred was now speaking carefully, with the effect 
 of remembering words already prepared. The Prime 
 Minister was looking at him keenly. He had en- 
 tirely ceased to twiddle his thumbs. 
 
 "You are all aware that I spent most of the sum- 
 mer and autumn of the year of my accession in camp 
 in the Adirondack Mountains in the state of New 
 York, undergoing a cure for phthisis. President 
 Lanchester, then ex-President, and his daughter were 
 living at their cottage on Old Loon Lake, near my 
 camp. I had already met Miss Lanchester at Wash- 
 ington " 
 
 Here Princess Georgina, as if at some overwhelm- 
 ing thought, raised her clasped hands and dropped 
 them again. 
 
 "And I soon formed one of the greatest friend- 
 ships of my life for her father. I also became very 
 deeply attached to Miss Lanchester. As you know, 
 Doctor Morrow, to whom I can never be grateful 
 enough, cured me. He did more than that" Alfred 
 looked at them very directly "he made a man of 
 me, of me who had been, I am afraid, very little 
 more than a prince." 
 
 "Alfred!" breathed his aunt. Was there no way 
 of enforcing lese majeste against a sovereign? 
 
 "Hearing of my restoration, you in England, no 
 
 353
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 doubt rightly enough from your point of view, took 
 up the business of my marriage; and you, Princess, 
 charged yourself or were charged with a mission to 
 intimate to me what was expected of me, preferably 
 in a certain direction. By that time I knew that 
 there was only one woman in the world whom 
 I wished to marry, and that it would not there- 
 fore be consonant with my feelings to marry any 
 other." 
 
 "Believe me, my dearest Alfred, these difficulties 
 have occurred to every " 
 
 His uplifted hand stayed the torrent from the 
 Princess. "Aunt Georgina, if this is really too much 
 for you " 
 
 "No, no! Oh, no!" 
 
 "I recognized nevertheless that it had been made 
 necessary for me to return to England, and I very 
 greatly doubted if I should be able to prevail, at all 
 events within a reasonable time, against influences 
 which would be exerted to keep me here, or possibly 
 against arguments which would be advanced to com- 
 pel me to make the conventional royal marriage. I 
 decided to lay the situation and my plan for dealing 
 with it before Miss Lanchester, and, with the knowl- 
 edge she possessed of my feelings, to let her decide. 
 I have now to tell you that she nobly consented to 
 marry me at once, and that on September fifteenth 
 of that year, at the registry office of the town of 
 
 354
 
 Cascade, in the Algonquin District of the state of 
 New York, she became my wife." 
 
 "Impossible!" wailed the Princess Georgina. 
 
 "No, your Royal Highness," observed Youghall, 
 putting, as the Princess said afterwards with exasper- 
 ation, one word after the other, "I happened to have 
 business with Prince Alfred as he then was the 
 same evening, and I saw the record the following 
 day in the clerk's books. I have a copy of the mar- 
 riage certificate with me here. The original is, of 
 course, in Cascade." 
 
 Lord Caversham leaned forward. "What Her 
 Royal Highness means, I take it, is not that the mar- 
 riage did not take place, but that His Majesty is 
 under a misapprehension in supposing that the lady 
 is his wife," said he; "and in that I think she is sup- 
 ported by the statutes." 
 
 "I know precisely what you mean," Alfred said; 
 "the Royal Marriages Act. Here it is." He opened 
 a stout volume, bound in time-worn calf, which lay 
 upon the table. " 'An Act for the Better Regulating 
 the Future Marriages of the Royal Family. Anno 
 Duodecimo Georgii III,' " he read. "I'm glad it 
 was George the Third. I've always wanted to pay 
 that fathead something back." 
 
 "Alfred!" his aunt could only moan. 
 
 "Here we are. This provides, Aunt Georgina, 
 that the marriage of any descendant of that illustrious 
 
 355
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 ass, made without the consent of the sovereign, 
 'shall be null and void to all Intents and Purposes 
 Whatsoever' unless he is twenty-five years of age 
 and persists, and one House of Parliament consents, 
 and so forth. That doesn't apply, but it shows that 
 even then the matter was practically laid before the 
 people. However, there it is plainly enough null 
 and void, with penalties for anybody assisting at 
 such a marriage as prescribed by the Statute of 
 Praemunire, made in the sixteenth year of the reign 
 of Richard the Second. Well," said Alfred, with an 
 extraordinarily equable laugh, "they won't hold any- 
 way, since I married in America." 
 
 "The provisions of the statute are no doubt an- 
 tiquated," remarked Sir Bute Rivers dryly; "but as 
 you say, sir, it is the law." The Foreign Secretary 
 had drawn his legs under his chair, and was tapping 
 about the table with a pencil. He looked oddly like 
 a hornet. 
 
 "There is, I fear, no doubt about it," said Lord 
 Caversham. 
 
 "Even the penalties for assistance," said Sir Bute, 
 with an involuntary glance in the direction of Youg- 
 hall, "would be found, I imagine, to be operative." 
 
 "I entirely acknowledge the assistance," said 
 Youghall promptly, "though it was mostly after the 
 fact. And I'll stand for the penalties." 
 
 "Be careful, Arthur," said Alfred with twinkling 
 
 356
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 gravity. "Your estates may be forfeited to the 
 Crown, you know, and your person, please remember, 
 placed at my disposal without the protection of the 
 police." 
 
 "At any time," said Youghall quietly. 
 
 "A curious situation, certainly," said Lord Caver- 
 sham. "Connivance in an offense against the Sov- 
 ereign committed er hum. But no doubt the 
 courts would be able to unravel it. There is, I fear," 
 he repeated, "no doubt about the law." 
 
 The Princess saw hope as a star appearing. 
 "Don't you see, Alfred, that it must be so?" she said, 
 folding the hands of meekness under prescribed con- 
 ditions. 
 
 "I am not married, you consider," said the King. 
 "And the lady who married me?" 
 
 "If you are not married, sir, she cannot be," 
 said Lord Caversham a little tartly. "It stands to 
 reason." 
 
 "I wonder," said the King. 
 
 "It is a curious position, certainly," Lord Caver- 
 sham said. "You, sir, are not married under the law 
 of your country, and the lady is married under the 
 law of hers. But that, if I may be permitted to say* 
 so, was her affair at the time " 
 
 "No" said the King, with the first sound of anger 
 in his voice. "It was my affair! I was in a rotten 
 position and she helped me out of it." 
 
 357
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 "That way of putting it does you honor, sir. But 
 I fear the lady must look to American law to free 
 her from her very difficult and embarrassing situa- 
 tion," said Lord Caversham gravely. 
 
 "Such things are so easy in America," breathed 
 the Princess. 
 
 The Foreign Secretary had been looking at the 
 copy of the marriage certificate. "She could obtain 
 a divorce," he remarked, "from the gentleman de- 
 scribed here as Alfred Wettin. A divorce, after all 
 this time, for ah, well, in legal language, for de- 
 sertion easily. There need be no publicity." 
 
 The King looked at his Foreign Secretary with an 
 expression that was not pleasant; but he controlled 
 himself and said in an even voice : "She will never 
 obtain a divorce for desertion by Alfred Wettin. 
 But I think we must make an end of this, gentlemen. 
 I repeat to you that I propose to offer marriage to 
 Hilary, only daughter of Mr. Henry Lanchester, 
 president of the United States of America. I would 
 like, for reasons of public policy, to do it with the 
 consent and approval which you are in a position to 
 arrange; and I ask you now, with the facts before 
 you, whether I can depend upon that consent and 
 approval or not." 
 
 There was just a perceptible pause. 
 
 The King waited. Arthur Youghall leaned for- 
 ward and waited also, looking at them all. 
 
 358
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 The Prime Minister replied: "I am deeply dis- 
 tressed, sir, to give you pain in a matter which so 
 intimately concerns you, but I feel compelled to say 
 that I cannot answer for the government in the sense 
 you desire." 
 
 "I support Lord Caversham," said the Foreign 
 Secretary. "I can do nothing else." 
 
 The Princess Georgina only looked. 
 
 "Then," said Alfred, "in order to put myself right 
 with the people in advance, I warn you that I shall 
 feel at liberty at once to authorize the publication 
 of the facts, both here and in America. If you choose 
 to repudiate the marriage " 
 
 "It is no marriage, sir, under the law of this 
 country," said Lord Caversham, stroking his chin. 
 
 "It is a marriage under the law of the country to 
 which I owe my life," said Alfred quietly. "And if 
 you then choose to repudiate it " 
 
 "Acknowledging our indebtedness, sir, which is 
 greater than yours, we should have no resource but 
 to repudiate it," said Caversham, as the King paused. 
 
 "The responsibility will rest with you." 
 
 There was again silence. 
 
 Alfred looked, almost with astonishment, at the 
 demeanor of the people before him. It was im- 
 mensely concerned, full of reluctance, but quite firm 
 and unimpressed. He had trusted the wings of his 
 imagination, and they had not brushed an eyelash 
 
 359.
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 out of place belonging to one of them. He had un- 
 rolled his great story, and they had put it aside as if 
 it were a fairy tale. They sat, stolid and unwinking, 
 for what they saw a historic principle and nothing 
 more. He had not moved them. He had played his 
 last trump, and he had not moved them. 
 
 "The responsibility," said Lord Caversham heavi- 
 ly, "would indeed be great. But I fear, sir, it would 
 rest upon you and the lady concerned." 
 
 At that Arthur Youghall, with a sudden move- 
 ment, threw himself back in his chair and thrust 
 his hands in his pockets. 
 
 "My position is entirely a moral one," said Al- 
 fred, but there was a hint of dispiritedness in his 
 tone. 
 
 Lord Caversham was quick to see it. "Your at- 
 titude, sir, is unimpeachable. Your position is what 
 the law makes it. So far as the marriage in New 
 York State is concerned the lady could not be ac- 
 cepted here as your wife, nor could your children 
 succeed. Under this statute, as you yourself recog- 
 nize, you were not legally qualified to contract mar- 
 riage without the consent of the sovereign. I fear, 
 sir, you have no practicable alternative." 
 
 "Oh, my dearest Alfred," ventured the Princess, 
 "you must do what becomes a king." 
 
 He turned upon her a curiously bitter face. "And 
 is that less," he said, "than becomes any decent 
 
 360
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 chap? If it is " He straightened his shoulders. 
 
 An excited relative might easily have thought a bur- 
 den about to fall. The clock ticked ten times while 
 they waited for the end of the sentence that did not 
 come. 
 
 "You must forgive me for saying," Alfred told 
 them, "that I find this discussion even more intoler- 
 able than I expected it to be. So would any one of 
 you in my place." Then to Lord Caversham: "You 
 would repudiate that marriage?" 
 
 "It would be our duty to repudiate it. Yes, sir; 
 we should repudiate it." At the game of bluff the 
 Prime Minister was perhaps the better man. 
 
 "Then perhaps," said Alfred, "more harm than 
 good would be done by publishing it; and I may 
 reconsider publication. But I maintain my intention 
 as I first laid it before you. I must ask you to under- 
 stand that." 
 
 The King rose as he spoke, very pale, and the 
 others with him. 
 
 Lord Caversham laid a hand upon his arm. "For- 
 give me, sir, but I beg you will also reconsider that 
 intention. We should be false both to you and to 
 the country if we did not oppose it in every possible 
 way. Such an action on your part would be anti- 
 constitutional. It would threaten the very existence 
 of the throne." 
 
 Alfred shook his head. "I have nothing more 
 
 361
 
 to say," he told them simply, and turned as if to 
 leave them. 
 
 Then spoke Arthur Youghall, leaning against his 
 chair, which he tipped forward under him. 
 
 "I'd just like to add one word," said he in his de- 
 liberate way. "You all make out that His Majesty 
 was not married to Miss Lanchester at Cascade, 
 New York, because, as a cadet of the royal family 
 of England, he couldn't do it without the consent 
 of the sovereign. Your objection, if the premises 
 were correct, is perfectly valid and unimpeachable. 
 But the premises are not correct. That marriage 
 took place on September fifteenth at two o'clock in 
 the afternoon. On September fifteenth the late King 
 John and his brother were drowned at eleven o'clock 
 in the morning. The person who married Miss Lan- 
 chester at Cascade, New York, was certainly the third 
 prince of the royal family, but he was also virtually 
 the king of England had been so for some hours 
 when he married. So I imagine you'll find the law 
 won't cut the knot for you, gentlemen." 
 
 Alfred gave Youghall a swift look of astonish- 
 ment, and then surveyed the opposing cohort. 
 
 He had seen the same expression on the face of 
 Lord Caversham once before, when the Prime Min- 
 ister heard an unexpected vote announced that sent 
 him out of office. Sir Bute Rivers, from a bullying 
 baron enforcing the authority of a sacred piece of 
 
 362
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 paper, shrank again into the third baronet looking to 
 the peerage. 
 
 "Mr. Youghall would give us to understand," 
 stammered the Foreign Secretary, "that it was His 
 Majesty who married." 
 
 "It was nobody else," said the Under Secretary. 
 
 They stood for an instant looking at Youghall, 
 who had closed his mouth, as the Princess said after- 
 wards, as if nothing more would ever come out of it. 
 
 The Prime Minister took a step forward. 
 "Then, sir, we can only appeal to you for the sake 
 of the honor of England " 
 
 Alfred looked at him steadily. Doubtless the 
 Prime Minister might have been more fortunate in 
 the name he invoked for his purpose. Lord Caver- 
 sham's eyes fell. There was an instant of silence, 
 and then it was as if the King had laid his hand upon 
 his sword. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said Alfred, "you have taught me 
 many things, for which I thank you. There is per- 
 haps one that you may learn of me. The honor of 
 England is mine and mine is England's." 
 
 And it was Youghall the Canadian, standing by 
 with folded arms, who found the buoyant word of 
 reply. 
 
 "Surely," said Youghall the Canadian. 
 
 The Princess Georgina, for all her dismay, was the 
 first to respond to the new polarity of the situation. 
 
 363
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 She threw up two crumpled sleeves of resignation 
 before the King. "Oh, Alfred," she said, "if it 
 is for your good and for England's, my arms are 
 open to her." 
 
 The King kissed her forehead. "As they were be- 
 fore," he said, with a funny tenderness. 
 
 And his Aunt Georgina through her tears echoed 
 him: "As they were before. There is this to be 
 said" she addressed Lord Caversham "She is my 
 goddaughter." 
 
 "I admit the complication," said Lord Caversham, 
 more, it seemed, to Sir Bute than to anyone else. 
 "I admit the complication." 
 
 Alfred left him admitting it. "I will notify the 
 Privy Council to-morrow," he said. "And I need 
 not say, gentlemen, that as to what I have disclosed 
 to you this morning, the public interest, as well as my 
 own, demands your absolute discretion. I should 
 like to see you later, Youghall. Will you lunch if 
 you are disengaged? Good morning, Caversham. 
 Thank you for your patient attention. You, too, 
 Sir Bute." 
 
 And so, having shaken hands, the King walked 
 out of his audience chamber, leaving Youghall, as he 
 afterwards reproached himself, to the lions. 
 
 The parliamentary Under Secretary for War was 
 nevertheless sound and whole enough when he met 
 his sovereign for a private moment before luncheon. 
 
 364
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 His welcome was ambiguous. Alfred approached 
 and seized him by the lapel of his coat. 
 
 "You unthinkable ruffian!" he said. You un- 
 speakable brute ! You have had it up your sleeve 
 all these years! Why, in the name of my married 
 majesty, didn't you point it out before?" 
 
 "There would have been no holding you," said 
 Youghall without excitement, "and, in advance, it 
 would have shattered the treaty. Maybe more. You 
 see that, don't you, sir? And I knew you wanted 
 the treaty." 
 
 He was a slow fellow, this Canadian, Arthur 
 Youghall. It must be admitted that he could wait. 
 
 The butler announced luncheon.
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 THE treaty had been signed at last in the first 
 week in April of the year after Henry Lan- 
 chester came to the White House for the 
 second time. It was not a perfect treaty, but it was a 
 very powerful and suggestive instrument nevertheless. 
 It lay like a great artillery piece on the field of 
 politics, and many eminent persons, mainly of foreign 
 extraction, walked around it in natural speculation. 
 There were those who expected an immediate volley 
 in a specified direction. There were those who said 
 and the wish was father to the thought that it would 
 be scrapped before it was fired. Meanwhile it was as 
 impressive to the world as any long-conceived ideal 
 is apt to be when it finally takes shape from human 
 hands. The authors surveyed it with no great ex- 
 citement on either side of the Atlantic. There was 
 the general sense of an old-standing matter of family 
 business at last arranged, and the relief that follows 
 that. A certain satisfaction perhaps, as well, in the 
 rather magnificent spectacle of family unity which 
 the event offered to outsiders, and in his own coun- 
 
 366
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 try an even greater pride in the President who had 
 fought down the old fears and suspicions and through 
 his personal influence brought Congress to his point 
 of view. The triumph of the treaty seemed there to 
 have even more a sporting interest than a national 
 one, and from its mere difficulty added immensely to 
 the popularity, which was rapidly becoming prestige, 
 of Henry Lanchester. 
 
 "No other man," said more than one spokesman 
 for the President, "in the face of the corrupt inter- 
 ests and the self-protectionists, could have pulled it 
 off." 
 
 But the President himself was of a very different 
 opinion. "My dear fellow," he was reported to have 
 said to one who congratulated him in those terms, 
 "it was as inevitable as the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. Next chapter, my dear man; next 
 chapter." 
 
 And the quiet, free thought of his country reg- 
 istered its agreement. 
 
 There it lay, the great gun, brought into inter- 
 national position in the first week in April. And 
 other weeks began to pass and nothing changed upon 
 the face of the world. It was a little flat after so 
 much anticipation. The great achievement began to 
 shrink to the size of a pigeon-hole in the foreign of- 
 fices concerned. Presently there would be the lightest 
 coating of dust upon it. A little bickering even be- 
 
 36?
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 gan over an Alaskan railway survey across a bit of 
 British Columbian hinterland. . . . 
 
 Meanwhile the Secret was very well kept. 
 
 That little coating of dust, so early, so premature, 
 was allowed to accumulate. Certain official organs 
 of the continent of Europe were permitted to re- 
 joice in the strong language used in Vancouver and 
 Seattle over the Alaskan railway dispute. While that 
 teacup was seething, a distinguished nobleman, who 
 had in his despatch-box the credentials of an envoy 
 from the British court, arrived in Washington, made 
 communications to President Lanchester with the 
 general purport of which he was already familiar, 
 and departed without provoking any particular com- 
 ment. The newspaper correspondents put the distin- 
 guished nobleman down to oil interests in Tampico. 
 They also noted that the President and his daughter 
 seemed to have become, of late, more inseparable 
 than ever, that he was seldom seen anywhere with- 
 out Miss Hilary now. 
 
 And then, one morning, without a word of warn- 
 ing, the world at large, and England and America 
 at home, were informed by authorized communica- 
 tion, issued from the highest quarters, of the be- 
 trothal of King Alfred and Hilary, only daughter of 
 Henry Lanchester, President of the United States of 
 America. 
 
 For a day it was unheard of, amazing, impossible. 
 
 368
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 A plot a plot of Henry Lanchester's to establish 
 an Anglo-American dynasty; a strange, most doubt- 
 ful act of kingly derogation. All the voices of reac- 
 tion called out at once and together, there and here, 
 here and there. They were sharp, sophisticated 
 voices, but they had to cry very loud to make them- 
 selves heard above the wide acclaiming chorus of de- 
 light that took no thought of politics, but only of 
 the drama of the dear, common .heritage playing 
 about two who were high and beloved among their 
 peoples. Just joy it was, and that great wisdom of 
 the heart that will prove itself master of destiny in 
 spite of all just, unconsidering joy that set Lon- 
 doners dancing in Trafalgar Square, and somebody 
 ringing that old bell in Philadelphia, whose notes 
 carried across the Revolution. 
 
 And it was remembered, as indeed it ought to 
 have been, how Prince Alfred had danced with his 
 future bride at a June ball in Washington in the 
 uniform of that unforgotten regiment, the Royal 
 Americans. 
 
 Then, when the tumult a little subsided, a sober 
 voice here and there said: "Why not?" 
 
 And a little later, when a certain far rolling in 
 the air could be heard, it was perceived that the gun 
 had spoken 1
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 IT was a wonderful night at sea, still and soft 
 and starry. The engine of the battleship 
 Hengist had slowed down until she was 
 moving almost imperceptibly. The lights of the 
 rest of the squadron, spaced behind, seemed not 
 to move at all. At the end of a favored voy- 
 age they were a little before their time. The ar- 
 rival was for nine o'clock next morning at South- 
 ampton. 
 
 The Hengist glittered from every porthole, a levi- 
 athan she looked, all diamonds. On the quarter- 
 deck Admiral Lord John Beresford, in command of 
 the squadron, explained the comparative strength 
 of the navies of China and Japan to the Marquis of 
 Courthorpe, the King's proxy. In the cabin Her 
 Grace the Duchess of Dymchurch and Her Grace 
 the Duchess of Cley, ladies of the bedchamber, Gen- 
 eral Otis, G. C. M. G., in conduct of the escort, and 
 an aide-de-camp, were talking of the match as if they 
 had arranged it. 
 
 Up from the hold swung xUggage of all sorts and 
 
 3/0
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 sizes. The bluejackets, piling it on the main deck, 
 came and went in procession. 
 
 At the foot of the companion, Mrs. Sattersby, bed- 
 chamber woman, whispered with a maid. "She is 
 really asleep?" 
 
 The maid nodded. "Peaceful as a lamb, ma'am. 
 And under her pillow the prayer book that was her 
 mother's." 
 
 They looked at each other fixedly, and tears came 
 and stood in the eyes of the bedchamber woman and 
 the maid. 
 
 In London the streets were packed with people 
 out to look at the decorations. The night was flower- 
 like there, and the heart of that old cradle of the race 
 was ever so stirred to romance. The King's bride 
 was to be a June bride; so thousands of people 
 thought it natural to wear a rose. On the great day, 
 the day after to-morrow, everybody would wear 
 one. *^ 
 
 All tongues were engaged upon one subject. The 
 policemen on point duty, if they had listened, would 
 have heard many things dropped into the summer 
 air. 
 
 "She's to be married from her own embassy. The 
 American ambassador is to give her away. They 
 say the pearls the people of the United States gave 
 her are the absolute pick of the world. Even at that 
 they couldn't spend the money. Thousands and
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 thousands go to the International Seamen's Widows' 
 and Orphans' Fund. . . ." 
 
 "Why didn't her father come?" 
 
 "Oh, well, you see he couldn't any more than 
 the King could go there. There are reasons for all 
 those things. The President did come a little way 
 in a battleship with a squadron to escort the Hengist 
 as far as Sandy Hook, wasn't it? Then she left 
 under a salute to the British squadron. Rather fine, 
 just for a girl. . . ." 
 
 "They say he fell in love with her last year at 
 a ball in Paris," a girl said. 
 
 "Did you see the Times' article? It was headed, 
 'The Idyll of the King.' One simply felt there was 
 nothing more to say. . . ." 
 
 "The Princess Georgina meets her at the sta- 
 tion " 
 
 "And he at the garden gate of the palace doesn't 
 her the inside one? Oh, yes, as private as it can 
 be." 
 
 "Will he kiss her?" 
 
 "I should hardly think so. Kings and queens 
 don't rush into each other's arms like ordinary 
 people. It's a political marriage, of course. Noth- 
 ing else would justify it. . . ." 
 
 Those were ladies. 
 
 A big man with a white mustache spoke to another 
 on the steps of his club, saying, "War isn't the chief 
 
 372
 
 : HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 menace. We're getting together to tackle our own 
 problems. The industrial revolution is adjourned 
 for fifty years" and he went on about his business. 
 
 Two others, held up at a crossing, were more dis- 
 cursive. 
 
 "Wonderfully little fuss," said one, "wonderfully 
 little there's been. Thought the women, at least, 
 would have been up in arms all the duchesses want- 
 ing to scratch her eyes out." 
 
 "Two of them have gone to look after her." 
 
 "Must be some principle, you know, underneath it 
 all, unconsciously recognized some principle of 
 political gravitation." 
 
 "When you think of it in those terms it isn't so 
 odd. The King's the crystallization of the political 
 instinct over here. Lanchester's its crystallization 
 over there. That's all that brings the crowd out to- 
 night." 
 
 "And just as human beings, you know, they ought 
 to bear comparison very well. The President has got 
 to stand for the American ideal, and so the people 
 make him of their best; he hasn't really much rela- 
 tion to the machine. We take our princes as they 
 come and educate 'em; the Americans pick theirs and 
 elect 'em. That's all the difference." 
 
 "A sovereign doesn't marry a woman," said the 
 first, lighting a cigar; "he marries a state. King 
 Alfred might have married Germany. He might 
 
 373
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 have married Russia. He marries America. It's 
 more in our line America." 
 
 "All the same, I wonder he had the courage," 
 said the other, "considering that political initiative 
 isn't exactly among our virtues or Caversham the 
 common sense." 
 
 The policeman dropped his arm. The philoso- 
 phers passed on. Their homes were in Addison 
 Gardens. 
 
 Abraham Longworth and Arthur Youghall, walk- 
 ing arm in arm along Piccadilly, exchanged the last 
 word that shall be reported. 
 
 "No," Youghall said, "the world is too small for 
 new races, old man. You can't make one out of two 
 hundred years and a few flavorings from Europe. 
 We're one lot and, please God, nothing of so little 
 consequence as a form of government shall perma- 
 nently divide us, or our inheritance." 
 
 It was a great deal for Youghall to say all at once. 
 He must have felt it. 
 
 "Even so," said Longworth. "And behold we are 
 a great people, for we do as we like ! We do as we 
 daffodil please; and then it is sacred and splendid 
 and lasts forever. What was that you said about a 
 Naturalization Act?" 
 
 "It will be introduced by the Government before 
 the end of the present session," said Youghall, "to 
 safeguard the succession as in 1706 for a lady from 
 
 374
 
 >HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 Hanover in order to insure 'that the said Princess 
 be and shall be, to all Intents and Purposes, deemed, 
 taken and esteemed a natural-born subject of this 
 Kingdom, as if the said Princess and all persons 
 lineally descending from her had been born within 
 this Realm of England, any Law, Statute, Matter or 
 Thing whatever to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 And she is a Princess," added Youghall. 
 
 "She is a princess of the blood," Longworth told 
 him. 
 
 And these faithful fellows, too, passed out of 
 earshot into the indeterminate crowd. 
 
 Even that night the illuminations were magnificent. 
 The hotels in the Strand surpassed themselves as 
 usual. Behind one bright window stooped a robust 
 but somewhat anxious figure over a suitcase, smooth- 
 ing out its wedding garment. Many persons, or their 
 valets, may have been occupied in the same way in 
 London that night, but few with a better right. The 
 figure was that of Dr. Henry P. Atkinson of Pitts- 
 burgh, and the large, square invitation stuck in the 
 looking glass was addressed to him. Doctor Mor- 
 row had been unable to come; but Doctor Atkinson 
 was there, athletic as ever, and going on to a Con- 
 gress at Berlin. 
 
 "I wonder," said he to himself, lifting upon the 
 bed a shirt that had been done up in New York at 
 reckless cost, "if old Perry will be there. I'd like 
 
 375
 
 to meet old Perry, and shake him by the hand, and 
 ask him what he thinks of British monarchs remade 
 for export in the United States of America." 
 
 In another place, Mrs. James Phipps fluttered and 
 smiled, and remembered and wept ; and the ex-Presi- 
 dent expanded a little as he thought of the Hengist 
 and her attendants coming into port, and contracted 
 a little as he thought of the half-naturalized vote of 
 the state of New York and the chances 
 
 "Three years," he said very privately to Mrs. 
 Phipps in the act of retiring; "we've got three years 
 and that ought to be enough." 
 
 "Enough for what?" asked his wife. 
 
 "Well, my dear, enough to insure the permanent 
 good will of the American people in the form of a 
 vested interest perhaps two or three little vested 
 interests in this throne institution." 
 
 "I think, James, that you ought to be a little more 
 choice in your language," said dear Mrs. Phipps, 
 "when you are speaking of thrones!" 
 
 Next morning the international festival waxed 
 high, and men slapped one another on the back for 
 no better reason than that they came from opposite 
 sides of the Atlantic. Privileged and unprivileged, 
 America was there to bring her daughter and re- 
 joice. The twined flags floated; every wind brought 
 the music of one nation or the other. 
 
 It was nine o'clock and the sun was shining; half- 
 
 376
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 past nine and the sun was shining; ten o'clock and 
 she was coming, and the sun still shone. 
 
 Far down Victoria Street the multitude saw the 
 first sign of her in the two companies that marched 
 before her carriage. Very well set up, they came on, 
 doing her honor in their dark green uniforms, the 
 escort the King had sent from the regiment of 
 his own choice, to bring her over the seas. Very 
 well set up they were, and thought, no doubt, quite 
 highly of themselves, simple men of the Imperial 
 Rifles, stepping well and proudly. And on they came 
 with their colonel at their head, people waiting only 
 till they should pass, when there came a voice from 
 the multitude: 
 
 "Three cheers for the Royal Americans!" 
 
 Then a great roar went up and rolled about West- 
 minster and Whitehall, which was heard distinctly in 
 New York, in Philadelphia, and even in Boston, 
 Massachusetts. And with it, to those who listened 
 well, came the sound of an invisible marching. . . . 
 
 And through the midst of it drove a pale girl with 
 wonderful dark eyes, sitting beside that familiar and 
 beloved figure, the Princess Georgina, just look- 
 ing and timidly smiling at the people that were 
 to be her people, while the Princess bowed and 
 bowed. . . . 
 
 They sat together, in the evening, in a quiet room 
 of the Palace where their high, encroaching world, 
 
 377
 
 HIS ROYAL HAPPINESS 
 
 with all its exactions and instructions, had left them 
 for a little with friendliness alone. 
 
 There she sat, so unbelievably near him, so almost 
 his own their high state dissolved into that. There 
 were roses in the room, and a green twilight from the 
 garden all that seemed to matter. She had come 
 far to meet him there; she looked perhaps a little 
 tired. 
 
 He regarded her very tenderly, and leaned toward 
 her, and took her hand, and stroked it. "The Ab- 
 bey is a beautiful place," he said; "and it belongs to 
 us all. You will not be afraid, my dear love to- 
 morrow." 
 
 Hilary smiled upon her husband. "I know it is a 
 beautiful place," she said; "and I know I shall not 
 be afraid, my dear love to-morrow." 
 
 The King kissed her hand.
 
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