know, we over here are still great sticklers on form. We are trying
hard to be progressive, but we still consider it quite rude to tell a
King to hold the wire while we talk to someone else who has not taken
the trouble that he has to make an appointment. You must remember that
he has perhaps dropped several shillings into the slot, and would
naturally be annoyed if told by the girl that time was up and to drop
another shilling.

"Or Lord Rockstone may perhaps be just in the midst of one of his
usual twenty-four-hour interviews with an American newspaper
representative," he continued his chaffing. "Now if he does not invite
Graves and Underhill and Apsworth to have tea with you, you might drop
in at Boodles' on your way back from the city, and we will just pop on
to Buckingham Palace and deliver to Queen Mary the ultimatum from the
suffragette ladies of the Sioux Indians."

Edestone laughed so heartily that the footman nearly turned to see if
something had happened. "And they say that you Englishmen have no
sense of humour. The trouble with you though, old top, is that your
joke is so deucedly good that you don't see the point yourself."

They were just passing through one of Rockstone's military camps,
where England's recruited millions were being trained, and cutting
short his badinage Edestone gazed at the scene with interest.

"It does seem a pity that all these fine young fellows should be
sacrificed in order to settle a question which I could settle in a
very short time," he said, becoming more serious.

"Settle it in a very short time?" repeated Lindenberry. "I would like