wouldn't be worth while to consider a King, but his wife set him
straight in short order.

Peculiarly promising their hopes was the indisputable fact that the
Prince's mother had married an American, thereby establishing a
precedent behind which no constitutional obstacle could thrive, and
had lived very happily with the gentleman in spite of the critics.
Moreover, she had met him while sojourning on American soil, and that
was certainly an excellent augury for the success of the present
enterprise. What could be more fitting than that the son should
follow in the footsteps of an illustrious mother? If an American
gentleman was worthy of a princess, why not the other way about?
Certainly Maud Blithers was as full of attributes as any man in
America.

It appears that the Prince, after leisurely crossing the continent on
his way around the world, had come to the Truxton Kings for a long-
promised and much-desired visit, the duration of which depended to
some extent on his own inclinations, and not a little on the outcome
of the war-talk that affected two great European nations--Russia and
Austria. Ever since the historic war between the Balkan allies and
the Turks, in 1912 and 1913, there had been mutterings, and now the
situation had come to be admittedly precarious. Mr. Blithers was in a
position to know that the little principality over which the young
man reigned was bound to be drawn into the cataclysm, not as a
belligerent or an ally, but in the matter of a loan that
inconveniently expired within the year and which would hardly be
renewed by Russia with the prospect of vast expenditures of war
threatening her treasury. The loan undoubtedly would be called and
Graustark was not in a position to pay out of her own slender