y snarl.

"Ah, bah!" he growled. "May the devil fly away with our dear Alec and
his doings day by day! A nice pair of fools we made of ourselves when we
pitchforked him into power!"

"Patience, my friend, patience!" said the Greek. "Everything comes to
him who waits, and Alec will fall far when his luck changes. It may be
to-morrow, or next week; but he must experience a reverse. He is like a
gambler at Monte Carlo who stakes maximums just because the table is
running favorably."

"Fish!" snorted Marulitch. "What else would a gambler do?"

"What indeed?" agreed Beliani, though a far less alert intelligence than
Marulitch's might have known that he was annoyed. The pink and white
Julius, whom his friends had nicknamed "le beau Comte," did not fail to
catch the contemptuous note of that purred answer; he sprang up from his
chair, ransacked a cupboard, and threw on the table a box of those
priceless cigarettes, the produce of a single southwesterly hillside at
Salonica, that are manufactured solely for the Sultan of Turkey.

"There, smoke, my Constantine," he laughed harshly. "Why should we
quarrel? We were idiots. Let us, then, admit it."

"Were we?"

"Can you deny it? We arranged the first move beautifully. With Theodore
out of the way----"

The Greek turned his head swiftly and looked at the door. Marulitch
lowered his voice.

"No need to refer to Theodore, you will say? How can one avoid it? His
death was the cornerstone of the edifice. If only that senile uncle of
mine had become King the path would be clear for the final coup before
the year was out. And now where are we? What purpose do we serve by self
delusion? Each day's newspaper bears witness to our folly. Alec carries
the Assembly by storm; Alec captures a would-be assassin; Alec flouts
Austria; Alec disbands the Seventh Regiment and hands its officers to
the police; Alec attends the funeral of Theodore and Helena, and takes
over their servants and debts; Alec tells the Sultan that he exists in
Europe only on sufferance; Alec draws a map of Kosnovia and decorates it
with railways; Alec bathes in the Danube at six, breakfasts at seven,
attends a christening at eight, a wedding at nine, a review at ten, a
memorial service in the cathedral at eleven, lunches at twelve, receives
provincial deputations at one, inaugurates the Delgratz Polo Club at two
and the Danubian Rowing Club at three,--Alec round the clock, and all
Europe agape to know what next he