BUCKINGHAM PALACE


To nearly every man, especially if he happened to be an Englishman,
the fact that he had received a Royal Command would have been
sufficient to make him, if not nervous, at least thoughtful. Edestone
was, however, so incensed at Rebener and so disgusted with Schmidt and
so angry with the entire German Secret Service, that it came to him as
a relief, like an invitation, from a gentleman older and more
distinguished than himself, to dine, or to see some recently acquired
painting or bit of porcelain, after he had been all day at a Board
meeting of avaricious business men. It was no affectation with him
that he felt he was going into an atmosphere in which he belonged. "I
always assume that Royalties are gentlemen," he would say, "until I
find that they are not; and as long as they conduct themselves as such
I am perfectly at ease, but as soon as they begin to behave like
bounders I am uncomfortable."

He was not one of those Americans who insist at all times and under
all circumstances that he is as good as any man, simply because in his
heart of hearts he knows that he is not, but hopes by this bluster to
deceive the world. On the contrary, he was a firm advocate of an
aristocratic form of government, and did not hesitate to say that he
considered the Declaration of Independence, wherein it refers to the
absolute equality of man, as a joke.

He was a most thorough believer in class and class distinction and
said that he hoped to see the day when the world would be ruled by an
upper class who would see that the lower classes had all that was good
for them, but would not be allowed to turn the world upside down with