ich followed an excellent bottle of sauterne.
Yellow is a cheerful colour, and Sir Bartholomew's waistcoat increased
the vague feeling of hopeful well-being which the luncheon produced.

"Affairs in the Near East," said Sir Bartholomew, "are at present in a
critical position."

"Always are, aren't they?" said Gorman. "Some affairs are like that,
Irish affairs for instance."

Sir Bartholomew frowned slightly. He hated levity. Then the good wine
triumphing over the dignity of the bureaucrat, he smiled again.

"You Irishmen!" he said. "No subject is serious for you. That is your
great charm. But I assure you, Mr. Gorman, that we are at this moment
passing through a crisis."

"If there's anything I can do to help you--" said Gorman. "A crisis is
nothing to me. I have lived all my life in the middle of one. That's the
worst of Ireland. Crisis is her normal condition."

"I think----" Sir Bartholomew lowered his voice although there was no
one in the room to overhear him. "I think, Mr. Gorman, that you are
acquainted with the present King of Megalia."

"If you mean Konrad Karl," said Gorman, "I should call him the late
king. They had a revolution there, you know, and hunted him out, I
believe Megalia is a republic _now_."

"None of the Great Powers," said Sir Bartholomew, "has ever recognised
the Republic of Megalia."

He spoke as if what he said disposed of the Megalians finally. The front
of his yellow waistcoat expanded when he mentioned the Great Powers.
This was only proper. A man who speaks with authority about Great Powers
ought to swell a little.

"The Megalian people," he went on, "have hitherto preserved a strict
neutrality."

"So the king gave me to understand," said Gorman, "He says his late
subjects go about and plunder their neighbours impartially. They don't
mind a bit which side anybody is on so long as there is a decent chance
of loot."

"The Megalians," said Sir Bartholomew, "are a fighting race, and in the
critical position of Balkan Affairs--a delicate equipoise--" He seemed
taken with the phrase for he repeated it--"A remarkably delicate
equipoise--the intervention of the Megalian Army would turn the scale
and--I feel certain--decide the issue. All that is required to secure
the action of the Megalians is the presence in the country of a leader,
someone whom the people know and recognise, someone who can appeal to
the traditional loyalty of a chivalrous race, in short----"

"You can't be t