councils of his country as the Prime Minister
himself. It sometimes occurred to him that the person who most signally
failed to realize this fact was the lady who did him the honor to
preside over his household.

"My dear Margaret," he said, "you can take my word for it that we know
what we are about. It is very important indeed that we should keep on
friendly terms with this young man,--I don't mean as a personal matter.
It's a matter of politics--perhaps of something greater, even, than
that."

The Duchess liked to understand everything, and her husband's reticence
annoyed her.

"But we have the Japanese Ambassador always with us," she remarked. "A
most delightful person I call the Baron Hesho, and I am sure he loves us
all."

"That is not exactly the point, my dear," the Duke explained. "Prince
Maiyo is over here on a special mission. We ourselves have only been
able to surmise its object with the aid of our secret service in Tokio.
You can rest assured of one thing, however. It is of vast importance to
the interests of this country that we secure his goodwill."

The Duchess smiled good humoredly.

"Well, my dear Ambrose," she said, "I don't know what more we can do
than feed him properly and give him pleasant people to talk to. He
doesn't go in for sports, does he? All I can promise is that we will do
our best to be agreeable to him."

"I am sure of it, my dear," the Duke said. "You haven't committed
yourself to asking any one, by the bye?"

"Not a soul," his wife answered, "except Sir Charles. I had to ask him,
of course, for Penelope."

"Naturally," the Duke assented. "I am glad Penelope will be there. I
only wish that she were English instead of American, and that Maiyo
would take a serious fancy to her."

"Perhaps," the Duchess said dryly, "you would like him to take a fancy
to Grace?"

"I shouldn't mind in the least," her husband declared. "I never met a
young man whom I respected and admired more."

"Nor I, for that matter," the Duchess agreed. "And yet, somehow or
other--"

"Somehow or other?" the Duke repeated courteously.

"Well, I never altogether trust these paragons," his wife said. "In all
the ordinary affairs of life the Prince seems to reach an almost perfect
standard. I sometimes wonder whether he would be as trustworthy in the
big things. Nothing else you want to talk about, Ambrose?"

"Nothing at all," the Duke said, rising to his feet. "I only wanted to
make it plain that we d