News. Opening the paper, he displayed a double-page engraving of the Coronation of Rudolf V. at Strelsau. The photograph and the picture he laid side by side. I sat at the table fronting them; and as I looked I grew absorbed. My eye traveled from my own portrait to Sapt, to Strakencz, to the rich robes of the cardinal, to Black Michael's face, to the stately figure of the princess by his side. Long I looked and eagerly. I was roused by my brother's hand on my shoulder. He was gazing down at me with a puzzled expression.
"It's a remarkable likeness, you see," said I. "I really think I had better not to go to Ruritania."
Rose, though half convinced, would not abandon her position.
"It's just an excuse," she said pettishly. "You don't want to do anything. Why, you might become an ambassador!"
"I don't think I want to be an ambassador," said I.
"It's more than you ever will be," she retorted.
That is very likely true, but it is not more that I
