uld think that I was mentally
deficient. Anybody would think that I was going to enclose it in a
note to the Customs, telling them to expect me on Saturday, disguised
in a flat 'at and a bag of gooseberries, and advising them to pull up
their socks, as I should resist like a madman. I don't know what's the
matter with you."

We endeavoured to smooth him down.

"And if," purred Daphne, "if there should be any--that is--what I mean
is, should any question arise----"

Berry laughed hysterically.

"Yes," he said, "go on. 'Any question.' Such as whether they can give
me more than five years' hard labour. I understand."

"--get on the telephone to Berwick. He knows the President personally
and can do anything."

"Sweetheart," replied her husband, "you may bet your most precious
life.... If Berwick wasn't in Paris, I wouldn't touch the business
with the end of a forty-foot pole."

"I wish I was going with you," said Daphne wistfully.

Berry took off his hat.

"You are," he said gently, "you are." He laid his hand upon his heart.
"I wish I could put the tobacco in the same poor place. But that's
impossible. For one thing, lady, you've all the room there is."

Which was pretty good for a king who hadn't been a courtier for nearly
nine years.

* * * * *

It was upon the following afternoon that Adele, who was brushing Nobby,
sat back on her heels.

"When Jill," she said, "becomes the Duchess of Padua, what bloods we
shall be."

"She isn't there yet," said I.

"Where?"

"My sweet," said I, "I apologise. I was using a figure of speech,
which is at once slipshod and American."

"That," said my wife, "is the worst of being English. You're like the
Indian tailor who was given a coat to copy and reproduced a tear in the
sleeve. Imitation can be too faithful. Never mind. I forgive you."

"D'you hear that, Nobby?" The terrier started to his feet. "Did you
hear what the woman said? That we, who have founded precedents from
time immemorial--that you and I, who taught America to walk----"

"He's Welsh," said Adele.

"I don't care. It's scandalous. Who defiled the Well of English? And
now we're blamed for drinking the water."

Adele looked out of the window and smiled at a cloud.

"Once," she said slowly, "once I asked you if you would have known I
was an American.... And when you said 'Yes,' I asked you why.... Do
you remember your answer? ... Of course," she add