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changes that came over her unconscious face. Instead of noting the
veneration he had expected, he was astonished and somewhat provoked to
see a slight curl of disgust at the corners of her mouth, a pronounced
disappointment in her eyes. Her face expressed ridicule, pure and
simple, and, he was shocked to observe, the exposure was unconscious,
therefore sincere.

"You do not like our ruler?" he said, as the carriage whirled by. He was
returning his hat to his head as he spoke.

"I cannot say. I do not know him," she replied, a tinge of sarcasm in
her voice. "You Americans have one consolation; when you tire of a ruler
you can put another in his place. Is it not wise to do so quite often?"

"I don't think wise is the word. Expedient is better. I am to infer that
you have no politics."

"One house has ruled our land for centuries. Since I came to your land
I have not once seen a man wave his hat with mad adulation and cry from
his heart: 'Long live the President!' For centuries, in my country,
every child has been born with the words: 'Long live the Prince!' in his
heart, and he learns to say them next after the dear parental words are
mastered. 'Long live the Prince!' 'Long live the Princess!' are tributes
of love and honor that greet our rulers from birth to death. We are not
fickle, and we have no politics."

"Do your rulers hear tin horns, brass bands, campaign yells,
firecrackers and stump speeches every four years? Do they know what it
means to be the voluntary choice of a whole nation? Do they know what
it is to rule because they have won the right and not because they were
born to it? Has there ever been a homage-surfeited ruler in your land
who has known the joy that comes with the knowledge that he has earned
the right to be cheered from one end of the country to the other? Is
there not a difference between your hereditary 'Long live the Prince'
and our wild, enthusiastic, spontaneous 'Hurrah for Cleveland!' Miss
Guggenslocker? All men are equal at the beginning in our land. The man
who wins the highest gift that can be bestowed by seventy millions of
people is the man who had brains and not title as a birthright." He was
a bit exasperated.

"There! I have displeased you again. You must pardon my antiquated
ideas. We, as true and loyal subjects of a good sovereign, cannot forget
that our rulers are born, not made. Perhaps we are afflicted at times
with brainless monarchs and are to be pitied. You are gen