puffing quietly at his cigarette, as
if personally he wouldn't lift a finger to stop the Staatenbund if he
could, "that's the end of it, a Staatenbund. In other words, we are back
where we were before the Vienna Congress!"

At this he chuckled heartily to himself: so the rest of us laughed too:
the thing was _too_ absurd. But the Authority, who was a man of nice
distinctions and genuinely anxious to instruct us, was evidently afraid
that he had overstated things a little.

"Mind you," he said, "there'll be _something_ left--certainly the
Zollverein and either the Ausgleich or something very like it."

All of the men gave a sort of sigh of relief. It was certainly something
to have at least a sort of resemblance or appearance of the Ausgleich
among us. We felt that we were getting on. One could see that a number
of the men were on the brink of asking questions.

"What about Rumania," asked Nelles--he is a banker and interested in
government bonds--"is this the end of it?"

"No," said the Authority, "it's not the end of Rumania, but it _is_ the
end of Rumanian Irridentismus."

That settled Nelles.

"What about the Turks?" asked Rapley.

"The Turks, or rather, I suppose it would be more proper to say, the
Osmanli, as that is no doubt what you mean?" Rapley nodded. "Well,
speaking personally, I should say that there's no difficulty in a
permanent settlement in that quarter. If I were drawing up the terms
of a treaty of peace meant to be really lasting I should lay down three
absolute bases; the rest needn't matter"--the Authority paused a moment
and then proceeded to count off the three conditions of peace on his
fingers--"These would be, first, the evacuation of the Sandjak; second,
an international guarantee for the Capitulations; and third, for
internal matters, an arrangement along the lines of the original firman
of Midhat Pasha."

A murmur of complete satisfaction went round the group.

"I don't say," continued the Eminent Authority, "that there wouldn't be
other minor matters to adjust; but they would be a mere detail. You
ask me, for instance, for a _milice_, or at least a gendarmerie, in the
Albanian hinterland; very good, I grant it you at once. You retain, if
you like, you abolish the Cypriotic suzerainty of the Porte--all right.
These are matters of indifference."

We all assumed a look of utter indifference.

"But what about the Dardanelles? Would you have them fixed so that ships
could go throug