isn't time
between meals. They eat five times a day here, and they eat long at a
time. How could they possibly sandwich in a war. I'm sixty-two years
old, and as far back as I can remember European war clouds have been
passing like little summer clouds, and they will continue to pass long
after you're an old man, Jackie. I make that statement deliberately, and
I challenge successful contradiction."

He expanded his great chest, and looked around with an air of defiance.
It was his favorite oratorical manner, now grown into a habit. But no
one challenged him, and they went to a bountiful breakfast, for which
the Senator paid willingly, demanding no greater return than the
attention of the others while he talked.

Later in the day the three drove together in the grounds of Schoenbrunn,
and John's thoughts passed for a while to the great Corsican who had
slept there, and who had led his army to victory over this the
haughtiest of European monarchies, and perhaps for that reason the
weakest. The tremendous convulsion upon which Napoleon had ridden to
such dazzling heights seemed to him impossible: it was clearly
impossible according to all the rules of logic, and yet it had occurred.
That was the most startling period in the history of the modern world,
and, forgetting what was about him, he tried to evoke it from the past.

He was recalled to the present by their driver, an eager Austrian, who
asked them in broken English if they wished to see the old emperor
arrive home from Ischl. He pointed with his whip to an open space,
adjoining the Schoenbrunn grounds, where people were already gathering.

"Of course, my good man," replied Senator Pomeroy in oratorical tones.
"We will go to see the emperor, but only as an object of curiosity. Far
be it from me to pay any homage to the representative of a decayed
system. I look on, merely as a free American citizen, no better and no
worse than the millions whom I strive to the best of my ability to
represent in our National legislative halls. Get us in as close as you
can, driver."

John was frankly eager. He disliked the military monarchies as much as
the Senator did, but he wanted to see the old emperor at whom fate had
shot so many cruel arrows. His carriage was to come down a certain
street from the railway station, and their skillful driver maneuvered
them to the very edge of it. The crowd was immense, and it was electric
with excitement. It was no ordinary occasion and al