‘I don’t like it at all, my lord.  How do you like it?’

’Very much, indeed.  I think the Emperor is the greatest fun I ever saw.  Prince Frederic,’—­one of the German princes who was staying at the time among his English cousins,—­’Prince Frederic says that he’s stuffed with hay, and that he’s made up fresh every morning at a shop in the Haymarket.’

‘I’ve seen him talk.’

’He opens his mouth, of course.  There is machinery as well as hay.  I think he’s the grandest old buffer out, and I’m awfully glad that I’ve dined with him.  I couldn’t make out whether he really put anything to eat into his...