the
Europeans about him; then he became aware that these had detached
themselves, and left him exposed to the presence of a fellow countryman.
It was Otterson, with Mrs. Otterson; he turned upon March with hilarious
recognition. "Hello! Most of the Americans in Carlsbad seem to be hanging
round here for a sight of these kings. Well, we don't have a great many
of 'em, and it's natural we shouldn't want to miss any. But now, you
Eastern fellows, you go to Europe every summer, and yet you don't seem to
get enough of 'em. Think it's human nature, or did it get so ground into
us in the old times that we can't get it out, no difference what we say?"

"That's very much what I've been asking myself," said March. "Perhaps
it's any kind of show. We'd wait nearly as long for the President to come
out, wouldn't we?"

"I reckon we would. But we wouldn't for his nephew, or his second
cousin."

"Well, they wouldn't be in the way of the succession."

"I guess you're right." The Iowan seemed better satisfied with March's
philosophy than March felt himself, and he could not forbear adding:

"But I don't, deny that we should wait for the President because he's a
kind of king too. I don't know that we shall ever get over wanting to see
kings of some kind. Or at least my wife won't. May I present you to Mrs.
March?"

"Happy to meet you, Mrs. March," said the Iowan. "Introduce you to Mrs.
Otterson. I'm the fool in my family, and I know just how you feel about a
chance like this. I don't mean that you're--"

They all laughed at the hopeless case, and Mrs. March said, with one of
her unexpected likings: "I understand, Mr. Otterson. And I would rather
be our kind of fool than the kind that pretends not to care for the sight
of a king."

"Like you and me, Mrs. Otterson," said March.

"Indeed, indeed," said the lady, "I'd like to see a king too, if it
didn't take all night. Good-evening," she said, turning her husband about
with her, as if she suspected a purpose of patronage in Mrs. March, and
was not going to have it.

Otterson looked over his shoulder to explain, despairingly: "The trouble
with me is that when I do get a chance to talk English, there's such a
flow of language it carries me away, and I don't know just where I'm
landing."

XXXIII.

There were several kings and their kindred at Carlsbad that summer. One
day the Duchess of Orleans drove over from Marienbad, attended by the
Duke on his bicycle. After luncheon,