to hear of this again?"

"I honestly didn't. I should have thought, for his own sake, that the
young man would have kept his mouth shut. He was hopelessly in the wrong,
and he behaved like a common young bounder."

The Ambassador shook his head slowly.

"Mr. Norgate," he said, "I am very sorry for you, but you are under a
misapprehension shared by many young men. You believe that there is a
universal standard of manners and deportment, and a universal series of
customs for all nations. You have our English standard of manners in your
mind, manners which range from a ploughboy to a king, and you seem to
take it for granted that these are also subscribed to in other countries.
In my position I do not wish to say too much, but let me tell you that in
Germany they are not. If a prince here chooses to behave like a
ploughboy, he is right where the ploughboy would be wrong."

There was a moment's silence. Norgate was looking a little dazed.

"Then you mean to defend--" he began.

"Certainly not," the Ambassador interrupted. "I am not speaking to you as
one of ourselves. I am speaking as the representative of England in
Berlin. You are supposed to be studying diplomacy. You have been guilty
of a colossal blunder. You have shown yourself absolutely ignorant of the
ideals and customs of the country in which you are. It is perfectly
correct for young Prince Karl to behave, as you put it, like a bounder.
The people expect it of him. He conforms entirely to the standard
accepted by the military aristocracy of Berlin. It is you who have been
in the wrong--diplomatically."

"Then you mean, sir," Norgate protested, "that I should have taken it
sitting down?"

"Most assuredly you should," the Ambassador replied, "unless you were
willing to pay the price. Your only fault--your personal fault, I
mean--that I can see is that it was a little indiscreet of you to dine
alone with a young woman for whom the Prince is known to have a
foolish passion. Diplomatically, however, you have committed every
fault possible, I am very sorry, but I think that you had better
report in Downing Street as soon as possible. The train leaves, I
think, at three o'clock."

Norgate for a moment was unable to speak or move. He was struggling with
a sort of blind fury.

"This is the end of me, then," he muttered at last. "I am to be disgraced
because I have come to a city of boors."

"You are reprimanded and in a sense, no doubt, punished," the Ambass