resources, two years of famine having fallen upon the people at a
time when prosperity was most to be desired.

He was in touch with the great financial movements in all the world's
capitals, and he knew that retrenchment was the watchword. It would
be no easy matter for the little principality to negotiate a loan at
this particular time, nor was there even a slender chance that Russia
would be benevolently disposed toward her debtors, no matter how
small their obligations. They who owed would be called upon to pay,
they who petitioned would be turned away with scant courtesy. It was
the private opinion of Mr. Blithers that the young Prince and the
trusted agents who accompanied him on his journey, were in the United
States solely for the purpose of arranging a loan through sources
that could only be reached by personal appeal. But, naturally, Mr.
Blithers couldn't breathe this to a soul. Under the circumstances he
couldn't even breathe it to his wife who, he firmly believed, was
soulless.

But all this is beside the question. The young Prince of Graustark
was enjoying American hospitality, and no matter what he owed to
Russia, America owed to him its most punctillious consideration. If
Mr. Blithers was to have anything to say about the matter, it would
be for the ear of the Prince alone and not for the busybodies.

The main point is that the Prince was now rusticating within what you
might call a stone's throw of the capacious and lordly country
residence of Mr. Blithers; moreover, he was an uncommonly attractive
chap, with a laugh that was so charged with heartiness that it didn't
seem possible that he could have a drop of royal blood in his
vigorous young body. And the perfectly ridiculous part of the whole