there were
notes which you could break gently, and notes which you
couldn't. . . .

Five minutes later, as he started on his twenty-one mile walk home, he
realised that this was one of the ones which you couldn't.

* * * * *

This, then, was the real reason of the war between Euralia and
Barodia. I am aware that in saying this I differ from the eminent
historian, Roger Scurvilegs. In Chapter IX of his immortal work,
_Euralia Past and Present_, he attributes the quarrel between the two
countries to quite other causes. The King of Barodia, he says,
demanded the hand of the Princess Hyacinth for his eldest son. The
King of Euralia made some commonplace condition as that his Royal
Highness should first ride his horse up a glassy mountain in the
district, a condition which his Majesty of Barodia strongly resented.
I am afraid that Roger is incurably romantic; I have had to speak to
him about it before. There was nothing of the sentimental in the whole
business, and the facts are exactly as I have narrated them.

CHAPTER III

THE KING OF EURALIA DRAWS HIS SWORD

No doubt you have already guessed that it was the Countess Belvane who
dictated the King of Euralia's answer. Left to himself, Merriwig
would have said, "Serve you jolly well right for stalking over my
kingdom." His repartee was never very subtle. Hyacinth would have
said, "Of course we're _awfully_ sorry, but a whisker isn't _very_
bad, is it? and you really _oughtn't_ to come to breakfast without
being asked." The Chancellor would have scratched his head for a long
time, and then said, "Referring to Chap VII, Para 259 of the _King's
Regulations_ we notice . . ."

But Belvane had her own way of doing things; and if you suggest that
she wanted to make Barodia's declaration of war inevitable, well, the
story will show whether you are right in supposing that she had her
reasons. It came a little hard on the Chancellor of Barodia, but the
innocent must needs suffer for the ambitions of the unprincipled--a
maxim I borrow from _Euralia Past and Present;_ Roger in his moral
vein.

"Well," said Merriwig to the Countess, "that's done it."

"It really is war?" asked Belvane.

"It is. Hyacinth is looking out my armour at this moment."

"What did the King of Barodia say?"

"He didn't _say_ anything. He wrote 'W A R' in red on a dirty bit of
paper, pinned it to my messenger's ear, and sent him back again."

"How very crude," said the Countes