The Prince of Graustark | Page 3

said that he had never heard anything so beautifully adroit
as "positively negative," and directed his secretary to submit to him
without delay the draft of a tactful letter to the anxious nobleman. They
were agreed that a Prince was more to be desired than a Count and, as
long as they were actually about it, they might as well aim high.
Somewhat hazily Mr. Blithers had Inquired if it wouldn't be worth
while to consider a King, but his wife set him straight in short order.
Peculiarly promising their hopes was the indisputable fact that the
Prince's mother had married an American, thereby establishing a
precedent behind which no constitutional obstacle could thrive, and had
lived very happily with the gentleman in spite of the critics. Moreover,
she had met him while sojourning on American soil, and that was
certainly an excellent augury for the success of the present enterprise.
What could be more fitting than that the son should follow in the
footsteps of an illustrious mother? If an American gentleman was
worthy of a princess, why not the other way about? Certainly Maud
Blithers was as full of attributes as any man in America.
It appears that the Prince, after leisurely crossing the continent on his
way around the world, had come to the Truxton Kings for a long-
promised and much-desired visit, the duration of which depended to

some extent on his own inclinations, and not a little on the outcome of
the war-talk that affected two great European nations--Russia and
Austria. Ever since the historic war between the Balkan allies and the
Turks, in 1912 and 1913, there had been mutterings, and now the
situation had come to be admittedly precarious. Mr. Blithers was in a
position to know that the little principality over which the young man
reigned was bound to be drawn into the cataclysm, not as a belligerent
or an ally, but in the matter of a loan that inconveniently expired within
the year and which would hardly be renewed by Russia with the
prospect of vast expenditures of war threatening her treasury. The loan
undoubtedly would be called and Graustark was not in a position to pay
out of her own slender resources, two years of famine having fallen
upon the people at a time when prosperity was most to be desired.
He was in touch with the great financial movements in all the world's
capitals, and he knew that retrenchment was the watchword. It would
be no easy matter for the little principality to negotiate a loan at this
particular time, nor was there even a slender chance that Russia would
be benevolently disposed toward her debtors, no matter how small their
obligations. They who owed would be called upon to pay, they who
petitioned would be turned away with scant courtesy. It was the private
opinion of Mr. Blithers that the young Prince and the trusted agents
who accompanied him on his journey, were in the United States solely
for the purpose of arranging a loan through sources that could only be
reached by personal appeal. But, naturally, Mr. Blithers couldn't
breathe this to a soul. Under the circumstances he couldn't even breathe
it to his wife who, he firmly believed, was soulless.
But all this is beside the question. The young Prince of Graustark was
enjoying American hospitality, and no matter what he owed to Russia,
America owed to him its most punctillious consideration. If Mr.
Blithers was to have anything to say about the matter, it would be for
the ear of the Prince alone and not for the busybodies.
The main point is that the Prince was now rusticating within what you
might call a stone's throw of the capacious and lordly country residence
of Mr. Blithers; moreover, he was an uncommonly attractive chap, with

a laugh that was so charged with heartiness that it didn't seem possible
that he could have a drop of royal blood in his vigorous young body.
And the perfectly ridiculous part of the whole situation was that Mr.
and Mrs. King lived in a modest, vine-covered little house that could
have been lost in the servants' quarters at Blitherwood. Especially
aggravating, too, was the attitude of the Kings. They were really
nobodies, so to speak, and yet they blithely called their royal guest
"Bobby" and allowed him to fetch and carry for their women-folk quite
as if he were an ordinary whipper-snapper up from the city to spend the
week-end.
The remark with which Mr. Blithers introduces this chapter was in
response to an oft-repeated declaration made by his wife in the shade of
the red, white and blue awning of the terrace overlooking, from its
despotic heights, the modest red roof of the King villa in the valley
below. Mrs. Blithers