ing noticed that Mrs. Hicks's lists,
having been "submitted," usually came back lengthened by the addition of
numerous wealthy and titled guests. Their Highnesses never struck out
a name; they welcomed with enthusiasm and curiosity the Hickses' oddest
and most inexplicable friends, at most putting off some of them to a
later day on the plea that it would be "cosier" to meet them on a more
private occasion; but they invariably added to the list any friends of
their own, with the gracious hint that they wished these latter (though
socially so well-provided for) to have the "immense privilege" of
knowing the Hickses. And thus it happened that when October gales
necessitated laying up the Ibis, the Hickses, finding again in Rome
the august travellers from whom they had parted the previous month in
Athens, also found their visiting-list enlarged by all that the capital
contained of fashion.

It was true enough, as Lansing had not failed to note, that the Princess
Mother adored prehistoric art, and Russian music, and the paintings of
Gauguin and Matisse; but she also, and with a beaming unconsciousness
of perspective, adored large pearls and powerful motors, caravan tea and
modern plumbing, perfumed cigarettes and society scandals; and her son,
while apparently less sensible to these forms of luxury, adored his
mother, and was charmed to gratify her inclinations without cost to
himself--"Since poor Mamma," as he observed, "is so courageous when we
are roughing it in the desert."

The smiling aide-de-camp, who explained these things to Lansing,
added with an intenser smile that the Prince and his mother were under
obligations, either social or cousinly, to most of the titled persons
whom they begged Mrs. Hicks to invite; "and it seems to their Serene
Highnesses," he added, "the most flattering return they can make for
the hospitality of their friends to give them such an intellectual
opportunity."

The dinner-table at which their Highnesses' friends were seated on
the evening in question represented, numerically, one of the greatest
intellectual opportunities yet afforded them. Thirty guests were grouped
about the flower-wreathed board, from which Eldorada and Mr. Beck had
been excluded on the plea that the Princess Mother liked cosy parties
and begged her hosts that there should never be more than thirty
at table. Such, at least, was the reason given by Mrs. Hicks to her
faithful followers; but Lansing had observed that, o