smart bonnets, or even a fine butler, when
the resources of the Court are withdrawn, and the city left to its own
devices."

"Stubber suspects," said Upton, "that the policy which prevails amongst
our great landed proprietors against small holdings is that which at
present influences the larger states of Europe against small kingdoms;
and so far he is right. It is unquestionably the notion of our day that
the influences of government require space for their exercise."

"If the happiness of the people was to be thought of, which of course it
is not," said Stubber, "I'd say leave them as they are."

"Ah, my dear Stubber, you are now drawing the question into the realm of
the imaginary. What do any of us know about our happiness?"

"Enough to eat and drink, a comfortable roof over you, good clothes,
nothing oppressive or unequal in the laws,--these go for a good way
in the kind of thing I mean; and let me observe, sir, it is a great
privilege little states, like little people, enjoy, that they need have
no ambitions. They don't want to conquer anybody; they neither ask for
the mouth of a river here, or an island there; and if only let alone,
they 'll never disturb the peace of the world at large."

"My dear Stubber, you are quite a proficient at state-craft," said
Upton, with the very least superciliousness in the accent.

"Well, I don't know, Sir Horace," said the other, modestly, "but as my
master's means are about the double of what they were when I entered his
service, and as the people pay about one-sixth less in taxes than they
used to do, mayhap I might say that I have put the saddle on the right
part of the back."

"Your foreign policy does not seem quite as unobjectionable as your home
management. That was an ugly business about that boy you gave up to the
Austrians."

"Well, there were mistakes on all sides. You yourself, Sir Horace, gave
him a false passport; his real name turns out to be Massy: it made an
impression on me, from a circumstance that happened when I was a young
fellow living as pad-groom with Prince Tottskoy. I went over on a
lark one day to Capri, and was witness to a wedding there of a young
Englishman called Massy."

"Were you, then, present at the ceremony?"

"Yes, sir; and what's stranger still, I have a voucher for it."

"A voucher for it. What do you mean?"

"It was this way, sir. There was a great supper for the country people
and the servants, and I was there, and I suppose