"it is very difficult to see
what practical interference there could be with the peace of the world.
I can very well believe that the spirit is there, but when it comes to
hard facts--well, what can they do? England can never be invaded. The
war of 1914 proved that. Besides, Germany now has a representative on
the League of Nations. She is bound to toe the line with the rest."

"It is not in Germany alone that we are disliked," Maggie reminded him.
"We seem somehow or other to have found our way into the bad books of
every country in Europe. Clumsy statesmanship is it, or what?"

"I should attribute it," Nigel replied, "to the passing of our old
school of ambassadors. After all, ambassadors are born, not made, and
they should be--they very often were--men of rare tact and perceptions.
We have no one now to inform us of the prejudices and humours of the
nations. We often offend quite unwittingly, and we miss many
opportunities of a _rapprochement_. It is trade, trade, trade and
nothing else, the whole of the time, and the men whom we sent to the
different Courts to further our commercial interests are not the type to
keep us informed of the more subtle and intricate matters which
sometimes need adjustment between two countries."

"That may be the explanation of all the bad feeling," Maggie admitted,
"and you may be right when you say that any practical move against us is
almost impossible. Dad doesn't think so, you know. He is terribly
exercised about the coming of Prince Shan."

"I must get him to talk to me," Nigel said. "As a matter of fact, I
don't think that we need fear Asiatic intervention over here. Prince
Shan is too great a diplomatist to risk his country's new prosperity."

"Prince Shan," Maggie declared, "is the one man in the world I am
longing to meet. He was at Oxford with you, wasn't he, Nigel?"

"For one year only. He went from there to Harvard."

"Tell me what he was like," she begged.

"I have only a hazy recollection of him," Nigel confessed. "He was a
most brilliant scholar and a fine horseman. I can't remember whether he
did anything at games."

"Good-looking?"

"Extraordinarily so. He was very reserved, though, and even in those
days he was far more exclusive than our own royal princes. We all
thought him clever, but no one dreamed that he would become Asia's great
man. I'll tell you all that I can remember about him another time,
Maggie. I'm rather curious about that report of Atcheson