sir. I can't help saying rubbernecks, sir, though it's a shocking
word. It's the only name for them, sir. That's what the little Prince
calls them, too. You see, it's one form of amusement they provide for
him, and I am supposed to help it along as much as possible. Mr. Tullis
takes him out in the avenue whenever I've got a party in hand. I
telephone up to the Castle that I've got a crowd and then I drive 'em
out to the Park here. The Prince says he just loves to watch the
rubbernecks go by. It's great fun, sir, for the little lad. He never
misses a party, and you can believe it or not, he has told me so
himself. Yes, sir, the Prince has had more than one word with me--from
time to time." King looked at the little man's reddish face and saw
therein the signs of exaltation indigenous to a land imperial.

He hesitated for an instant and then remarked, with a mean impulse to
spoil Hobbs's glorification: "I have dined with the President of the
United States."

Hobbs was politely unimpressed. "I've no doubt, sir," he said. "I
daresay it was an excellent dinner."

King blinked his eyes and then turned them upon the passing show. He was
coming to understand the real difference between men.

"I say, who is that just passing--the lady in the victoria?" he asked
abruptly.

"That is the Countess Marlanx."

"Whew! I thought she was the queen!"

Hobbs went into details concerning the beautiful Countess. During the
hour and a half of display he pointed out to King all of the great
personages, giving a Baedeker-like account of their doings from
childhood up, quite satisfying that gentleman's curiosity and involving
his cupidity at the same time.

When, at last, the show was over, Truxton and the voluble little
interpreter, whom he had employed for the occasion, strolled leisurely
back to the heart of the town. Something had come over King, changing
the quaint old city from a prosaic collection of shops and thoroughfares
into a veritable playground for Cinderellas and Prince Charmings. The
women, to his startled imagination, had been suddenly transformed from
lackadaisical drudges into radiant personages at whose feet it would be
a pleasure to fall, in whose defence it would be divine to serve; the
men were the cavaliers that had called to him from the pages of
chivalrous tales, ever since the days of his childhood. Here were
knights and ladies such as he had dreamed of and despaired of ever
seeing outside his dreams.

Hob