at Bellamy's rooms.
Bellamy greeted him heartily. He was on the point of going out,
and the two men drove off together in the latter's car.

"See, my dear friend," Bellamy exclaimed, "what great things come
from small means! The document which you preserved for us, and
for which we had to fight so hard, has done all this."

"It is marvelous!" Laverick murmured.

"It is very simple," Bellamy declared. "That meeting in Vienna was
meant to force our hands. It is all a question of the balance of
strength. Germany and Austria together, with Russia friendly,--even
with Russia neutral,--could have defied Europe. Germany could
have spread out her army westwards while Austria seized upon her
prey. It was a splendid plot, and it was going very well until the
Czar himself was suddenly confronted by our King and his Ministers
with a revelation of the whole affair. At Windsor the thing seemed
different to him. The French Government behaved splendidly, and the
Czar behaved like a man. Germany and Austria are left plante la.
If they fight, well, it will be no one-sided affair. They have no
fleet, or rather they will have none in a fortnight's time. They
have no means of landing an army here. Austria, perhaps, can hold
Russia, but with a French army in better shape than it has been for
years, and the English landing as many men as they care to do, with
ease, anywhere on the north coast of Germany, the entire scheme
proved abortive. Come into the club and have a drink, Laverick.
To-day great things have happened to me."

"And to me," Laverick interposed.

"You can guess my news, perhaps," Bellamy said, as they seated
themselves in easy-chairs. "Mademoiselle Idiale has promised to
be my wife."

Laverick held out his hand.

"I congratulate you heartily!" he exclaimed. "I have been an
engaged man myself for something like half-an-hour."

CHAPTER XXXVIII

A FAREWELL APPEARANCE

"One thing, at least, these recent adventures should teach whoever
may be responsible for the government of this country," Bellamy
remarked to his wife, as he laid down the morning paper. "For the
first time in many years we have taken the aggressive against Powers
of equal standing. We were always rather good at bullying smaller
countries, but the bare idea of an ultimatum to Germany would have
made our late Premier go lightheaded."

"And yet it succeeded," Louise reminded him.

"Absolutely," he affirmed. "To-day's news m