us not merely defeat but disaster. As against the Bishops
we have a certain amount of popular opinion to back us; but if once it
appears that dislike for our policy has driven the King into abdication,
then our ruin will be immediate and irremediable. We have to recognize
that during the past year his popularity has greatly increased, while
our own, to say the most, is stationary."

"Yes, and he knows it!" said the Minister of the Interior, bitterly.

"I call it a treacherous and a cowardly act!" exclaimed the Secretary
for War.

"He is trying to bully us!" said the Commissioner-General.

"I should say that he is succeeding," remarked Professor Teller in a dry
tone. "Had we not better recognize, gentlemen, that his Majesty has made
a very shrewd hit? Can we not--compromise?"

"Impossible!" asseverated the Prime Minister. "It is too late."

Professor Teller leaned back in his chair and let the discussion flow
on. His attitude was noticeable; he was the only minister who was taking
it sitting down.

"When does this abdication take effect?" asked one. "I mean, how long
can it be kept from the press?"

"Who knows? If his Majesty has done one mad thing he may have done
another."

"I must see him at once," said the Premier, "this cannot be allowed to
go on."

"You will have to take a very firm tone."

"I would suggest that we all send in our portfolios."

"We have tried that once; he would not accept them now, and we have no
power to make him."

"No; that is the damnable thing! That is what makes his position so
strong."

"Do you think he knows?"

"Of course; why else has he done it? It's really clever; that's what I
can't get over, he has done a clever thing!"

"Who can have put it into his head?"

"It is the most unjustifiable stretch of the royal prerogative that ever
I heard of."

"There's no prerogative about it; it's sheer revolution and rebellion."

"An attack on the Constitution, I call it."

Thus they talked.

"Strange!" murmured Professor Teller, irritating them with his
philosophic tone and his detached air,--"strange that when it threatens
itself with extinction monarchy becomes powerful."

"It is no question of extinction," said the Prime Minister tetchily; "we
should still have his successor to deal with; and Prince Max, I can tell
you, gentlemen, is a very dark horse. You all know what happened three
months ago; and now, within the last week, we have learned that he is
publishing