uniform which makes him look even smaller
than he really is. The King gave his arm to the Queen, and every one
followed into the dining-room, going through the Japanese room. I
should say that there were twenty people at table, J. and I being the
only guests. I sat on the right of the King, and Johan sat on the right
of the Queen. The dinner was delicious. We had the famous white
truffles from Piemonte supplied exclusively for the King. These
truffles exist only in certain forests belonging to the Crown in
Piemonte. And there is only a certain kind of pigs that have the
particular kind of nose that can find them and rout them out from under
the ground. A pig and his nose are not enticing caterers, but
nevertheless the truffles are delicious. When they are served they have
rather a strong odor of garlic, but they do not taste of it in the
least.

"Well," said the King, as we sat down to the table, "what have you been
doing?"

"Your Majesty would be soon tired if I told you all I have done," I
said.

"_Bien!_ that is a good commencement. We will have enough for the whole
dinner.... I listen...."

"To begin with, we spent two months in Denmark. Then I went to America
to see my mother; then to Paris; then to the Riviera; and from Monte
Carlo here."

"Monte Carlo," remarked the King. "That is a bad place. I have never
been there. It is out of the circuit of my official duties," he added,
laughingly.

"It is a very bad place, your Majesty, if you are unlucky in play;
otherwise it is a lovely place."

"Of course you played at the tables?" the King said.

"Of course," I replied.

"And lost all your money," said the King, and laughed.

"No, your Majesty. I won. I won enough to bring away a hundred-franc
gold piece which I keep as a fetish."

"Lend it to me! I need a fetish badly," said the King.

"Certainly I will," and prepared to unhook it from the chain it was on.

"No, no! I am only joking. I do not need anything to bring me luck."
Then he changed the conversation suddenly.

After dinner we returned to the _grande salle_. The King and the
gentlemen remained with the ladies a little while, then went to smoke
in the billiard-room. As the King hardly ever sits down--or, if he
does, sits on the edge of the billiard-table--the gentlemen were
obliged to stand during the hour before the King joined the Queen. We
ladies sat with the Queen, who entertained us with her impressions of
the novels she had just been r