is manner to deal with men separated widely from himself
in station and abilities. He could throw such an air of good fellowship
into the smallest attentions, impart such a glow of kindliness to the
veriest commonplaces, that the very craftiest and shrewdest could never
detect. As he leaned his arm, therefore, on Stubber's shoulder, and
smiled benignly on him, you would have said it was the affectionate
meeting with a long-absent brother. But there was something besides
this: there was the expansive confidence accorded to a trusty colleague;
and as he asked him about the Duchy, its taxation, its debt, its
alliances and difficulties, you might mark in the attention he bestowed
all the signs of one receiving very valuable information.

"You perceive, Princess," said he, at last, "Stubber quite agrees with
the Duke of Cloudeslie,--these small states enjoy no real independence."

"Then why are they not absorbed into the larger nations about them?"

"They have their uses; they are like substances interposed between
conflicting bodies, which receive and diminish the shock of collisions.
So that Prussia, when wanting to wound Austria, only pinches Baden; and
Austria, desirous of insulting Saxony, 'takes it out' on Sigmaringen."

"It's a pleasant destiny you assign them," said she, laughing.

"Stubber will tell you I'm not far wrong in my appreciation."

"I 'm not for what they call 'mediatizing' them neither, my Lady," said
Stubber, who generally used the designation to imply his highest degree
of respect. "That may all be very well for the interests of the great
states, and the balance of power, and all that sort of thing; but we
ought also to bestow a thought upon the people of these small countries,
especially on the inhabitants of their cities. What's to become of
_them_ when you withdraw their courts, and throw their little capitals
into the position of provincial towns and even villages?"

"They will eke out a livelihood somehow, my dear Stubber. Be assured
that they 'll not starve. Masters of the Horse may have to keep livery
stables; chamberlains turn valets; ladies of the bedchamber descend to
the arts of millinery: but, after all, the change will be but in name,
and there will not be a whit more slavery in the new condition than in
the old one."

"Well, I 'm not so sure they 'll take the same comfortable view of it
that you do, Sir Horace," said Stubber; "nor can I see who can possibly
want livery stables, or