my very life to your service. What would I be without you?
To you I owe this flattering mission, to you I owe my very presence
here.

PRINCE.

Yes--why _are_ you here?

HOTHAM (_looks about_).

It is an affair of the greatest secrecy. But if you desire I shall not
hesitate to tell you what it is.

PRINCE. (_absently_).

I am not curious. Will it keep you here long?

HOTHAM.

That depends upon circumstances--circumstances of a most delicate
nature.

PRINCE.

An affair of honor?

HOTHAM (_low_).

It concerns a possible marriage contract--between Princess Wilhelmine
and the Prince of Wales.

PRINCE (_as if beside himself_).

You? You are the ambassador of whom the King spoke to me just now?

HOTHAM.

Has the King been informed already?

PRINCE.

Then you--you are that irresistibly clever diplomat whom they are
awaiting with open arms?

HOTHAM.

Does the King really look with favor upon this marriage with the Prince
of Wales?

PRINCE.

Horrible! I picked this man for a genius from among a thousand others. I
took him from Paris, and put him into English diplomacy and now I must
suffer because he does honor to my judgment. Let me tell you, then, my
friend, that the King and the Queen, quite ignorant of their mutual
agreement, are both heartily desirous of this marriage and all of its
implications. But you are to know also that Princess Wilhelmine, the
unhappy sacrifice of your political ambitions, is loved by a prince who
cannot compete in power or position with your Prince of Wales, but who
in devotion, love, passion so far outdistances all and any crowned
suitors for the hand of this angel as heaven, nay, as paradise,
outdistances earth--and that this prince is--myself.

HOTHAM.

This is indeed a discovery I did not dream of, and I must, unhappily,
add not a pleasant one. But if you ask in due form, why should they not
grant you the hand of the Princess?

PRINCE.

Grant it to me? A petty German sovereign When they have the choice of
future Kings and Emperors? Speak of me to the Queen and you will
discover that she invariably confuses Baireuth with Ansbach.

HOTHAM.

The discovery is all the less pleasing in that I, as envoy of my
government, must do all I can to bring about the marriage.

PRINCE.

Of course, you must justify my recommendation.

HOTHAM.

And yet I take the liberty of suggesting that possibly--under certain
conditions--this marriage with England might not com