said, gloomily, "I didn't like people so well. It seems
to cause them and me such a lot of trouble."

He sighed, and stretched out his hand for a copy of one of the English
illustrated papers. It had a fresher interest to him because the next
number of it that he would see would be in the city in which it was
printed. The paper in his hands was the St. James Budget, and it
contained much fashionable intelligence concerning the preparations for
a royal wedding which was soon to take place between members of two of
the reigning families of Europe. There was on one page a half-tone
reproduction of a photograph, which showed a group of young people
belonging to several of these reigning families, with their names and
titles printed above and below the picture. They were princesses,
archdukes, or grand-dukes, and they were dressed like young English men
and women, and with no sign about them of their possible military or
social rank.

One of the young princesses in the photograph was looking out of it and
smiling in a tolerant, amused way, as though she had thought of
something which she could not wait to enjoy until after the picture was
taken. She was not posing consciously, as were some of the others, but
was sitting in a natural attitude, with one arm over the back of her
chair, and with her hands clasped before her. Her face was full of a
fine intelligence and humor, and though one of the other princesses in
the group was far more beautiful, this particular one had a much more
high-bred air, and there was something of a challenge in her smile that
made any one who looked at the picture smile also. Carlton studied the
face for some time, and mentally approved of its beauty; the others
seemed in comparison wooden and unindividual, but this one looked like
a person he might have known, and whom he would certainly have liked.
He turned the page and surveyed the features of the Oxford crew with
lesser interest, and then turned the page again and gazed critically
and severely at the face of the princess with the high-bred smile. He
had hoped that he would find it less interesting at a second glance,
but it did not prove to be so.

"'The Princess Aline of Hohenwald,'" he read. "She's probably engaged
to one of those Johnnies beside her, and the Grand-Duke of Hohenwald
behind her must be her brother." He put the paper down and went into
luncheon, and diverted himself by mixing a salad dressing; but after a
few mom