t is a wretched,
unromantic hole--not a country, just a great mob of people."

"I can well believe your Excellency. This way, sir."

They returned to the big room of the tavern, and Dolores retired from
the temporary confessional box. Her face showed mixed emotions--but
predominating over any other influence was the great desire to serve
the rulers of her family. Curiously loyal are these humble peasants of
the inland Latin districts. Their lives follow the monotonous example
of the generations before them: as their grandsires, their fathers were
tradesmen of a certain calling, so do they follow the strata, contented
to exist with the conventional beginning, moderately happy middle era,
and inevitably stupid ending of their lives.

It is this which is so pleasing to the European aristocrats: no matter
how bankrupt, incompetent, disreputable, the class theory which is
recognized by the masses is, "Once a gentleman, always a gentleman."

It is inconceivable upon the Continent for a peasant's or even a
tradesman's son or daughter to aspire to a higher level than that of
the family. Exceptions to the rule are looked upon with distrust by
superiors as well as the lowly equals: too much ambition is a
temptation to the gods which is hardly respectable.

There is a smug contentment, then, in the feudal countries which is the
surest bulwark of the "divine right of kings"--and courtiers! A
pleasantly distended belly, a mellow thrill from cheap wine, a
certainty about the repetition of regular meals and drinks, with enough
clothes and shelter to maintain relative positions with the
neighbors--this year, next year, and twenty years from now ... these
things are the mess of pottage for which the Esaus of the kingdoms and
principalities sell their birthrights and their souls!

Vardos--for instance--bodyservant and sole military retainer of a
princely line which for generation after generation had considered
itself in humiliating straits unless there were at least a thousand
lances at beck and call--old Vardos had been thrown into a mental
maelstrom by the sudden change in the lifelong existence. Sure of his
meals and a modicum of money for occasional visits to taprooms, he was
now placed in a position of responsibility, one where executive and
aggressiveness were demanded. Here old Vardos failed, because he was a
peasant true to his type. The poor fellow had struggled with his grief
these fifteen days--now he felt, with a helpl