I would be glad of an
opportunity to place before members. If you introduce me, they will give
me a fair hearing. Let a vote be taken at once. If it is opposed to a
monarchy, I am ready to be conducted to either the railway station or
the scaffold, whichever the Assembly in its wisdom may deem best fitted
to national needs. If it is in my favor, I am King. What more is there
to be said?"

"What, indeed?" growled Stampoff. "Why so much talk? Let us eat!"

Poor Nesimir! He had the unhappy history of his country at his fingers'
ends, and never before had Delgrado or Obrenovitch striven for kingship
in this kid-glove fashion.

"Breakfast shall be served instantly," he said, trying vainly to imitate
the cool demeanor of his guests. "But--you will appreciate the
difficulties of my position. I must consult with the ministers."

"I hope I may call your Excellency a friend," said Alec, "and I shall be
ever ready to accept your Excellency's counsel; but on this exceptional
occasion I venture to advise you. Let none know I am here. In the
present disturbed condition of affairs there must be almost as many
hidden forces existing in Delgratz as there are men in the Cabinet. Why
permit them to fret and fume when you alone have power to control them?
I promise faithfully to abide by the decision of the Assembly. Should it
favor me, your position is consolidated; should it prove adverse to my
cause, you still remain the chief man in the State, since the world will
realize that it was to you, and you only, I submitted in the first
instance."

"By all the saints, that is well put!" cried Stampoff. "Now, Sergius,
my lamb, a really good omelet, something grilled, and a bottle of sound
Karlowitz--none of your Danube water for me!"

The President surrendered at discretion. Alec's appeal to his self
importance was irresistible. He was excited, elated, frightened; but
happily he was strong enough to perceive that a chance of obtaining
distinction was within his grasp, and he clutched at it, though with
palsied hands.

So it came to pass that when the hundred and fifty members of the
National Assembly gathered in the great hall of the convention, none
there knew why a tall, pleasant faced young man should be sitting in the
President's private room, and apparently not caring a jot who came or
went during the half-hour's lobbying and retailing of political gossip
that preceded the formal opening of the sitting.

But there was an awkward