d was broken winded till I stopped
the leak. You were saying?"

"That Alec Delgrado might have married your young friend; but King
Alexis III. cannot."

"He will," said Felix, grinning complacently.

"If he does, it will cost him his throne."

"Poof! For a man of the world, Michael, you utter opinions that are
singularly inept. I think you were driving just now at the accepted
theory of royal alliances? If it holds good for Alec, it affects you,
his father. You didn't marry a Princess, but happily secured a good,
honest American lady, sufficiently endowed with good, honest American
dollars to keep you in luxury throughout your useless life. If there is
some law which says that Alec cannot make Joan a Queen, the same law
would prevent him from being a King. But it doesn't. King he is, and
King he will remain as long as it pleases God to keep him in good health
and save him from the miserable rascals who tried to assassinate him
to-day--and their like. What you want, Michael, is a friend who is not
afraid to warn you. Now, for the hour, kindly regard me as filling that
useful capacity. After twenty-five years of extravagance you have
managed, I suppose, to exhaust your excellent wife's fortune. You came
to Delgratz this morning for the express purpose of drawing fresh
supplies from the Kosnovian treasury. Well, you haven't met your son
yet; but when you suggest that he should begin to impoverish his people
to maintain you in idle pomp in Paris, I fancy you will find him
adamant. That is not his theory of governing. If it was, he would
neither marry Joan nor be alive at this moment, since Heaven saw fit to
intrust me with the control of both his bride and his life.

"One thing more I have to say, Michael, and then I have finished, unless
you press me too hardly. Let us suppose Alec had fallen in to-day's
attempt. Whom do you think would succeed him? Michael V. Not for five
minutes! You know now, and I have known all along, that the real
instigator of the May outbreak was Julius Marulitch and his Greek bear
leader, Constantine Beliani. You were inspired, Michael, when you
resigned your claims in favor of your son. Those two meant to put you
forward as their puppet and shove you to the wall as soon as the
Delgrado line was restored and they were able to pull the strings here
in safety. They never dreamed that Alec, the careless, happy-go-lucky
boy, the polo player and haunter of studios, would prove a stumbling
block i