ant where I saw you the other
morning?"

The doctor drew a little breath.

"It was you, then!" he exclaimed.

"But naturally," the Prince murmured. "I took it for granted that you
would recognize me."

The doctor found some difficulty in proceeding. He was trying to
imagine the cousin of an Emperor riding a bicycle along a country
road, staggering into his surgery at midnight, covered with dust,
inarticulate, pointing only to the wounds beneath his cheap clothes!

"Nothing," the Prince continued easily, "has impressed me more in your
country than the splendor of your restaurants. You see, that side of
your life represents something we are altogether ignorant of in Japan."

"It is a very wonderful place," the doctor admitted. "We had luncheon,
my friend and I, in the grillroom, but we came for a few minutes into
the foyer to watch the people from the restaurant."

The Prince nodded genially.

"By the bye," he remarked, "it is strange that my very good friend--Mr.
Inspector Jacks--should also be a friend of yours."

"He is scarcely that," the doctor objected. "I have known him for a very
short time."

The Prince raised his eyebrows. The whiskey and soda were brought, and
the doctor helped himself. How curiously deficient these Westerners
were, the Prince thought, in every instinct of duplicity! As clearly
as possible the doctor had revealed the fact that his acquaintance
with Inspector Jacks was of precisely that nature which might have been
expected.

The Prince sighed. There was but one course open to him.

"Now, Dr. Whiles," he said, "I will tell you something. You must listen
to me very carefully, please. I sent for you not so much on account of
any immediate pain but because my general health has been giving me a
little trouble lately. I have come to the conclusion that I require the
services of a medical attendant always at hand."

The doctor looked at his prospective patient skeptically.

"You have not the appearance," he remarked, "of being in ill health."

"Perhaps not," the Prince answered. "Perhaps even, there is not for the
moment very much the matter with me. One has humors, you know, my dear
doctor. I have a somewhat large suite here with me in England, but I do
not number amongst them a physician. I wanted to ask you to accept that
position in my household for two months."

"Do you mean come and live here?" the doctor asked.

"That is exactly what I do mean," the Prince answered. "I am