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Show faff u fO wAmm O- mi GEORGE A. c--' BisMimnm WNU Sarvlca. a good turn. Only for my sticking to Viola through thick and thin la spite of everything that everybody said, you wouldn't be here, would you?" "If there's any mortal thing I can do for yon in any way," said Tommy, "just tell me what It Is." "Thanks," said Norheys. "Well, I've married Viola, you know, and of course she's a marchioness of Norheys Nor-heys and all that, which ought to be good enough and Is good enough. All the same, the world's full of old cats. I'm not talking of Uncle Ned now. But there are cats, aunts, you know, and lots more who aren't even aunts. They'll be inclined to sniff a bit at Viola, on account of her being a dancer on the stage and that sort of thing. Now, what I always say Is this : I don't care a d n- what a girl was, dancer or anything else. No more do you. No more does any sensible sen-sible man. But If there are cats in the world and there's no use denying deny-ing that what I say is, that it's better to have them purring than mewing." Norheys' idea, no doubt, was fundamentally funda-mentally sound, but I had my misgivings misgiv-ings as to the amount of purring my sister Emily would do when she heard of his marriage to a young lady who had become prominent as a public dancer. Emily has her own ideas on many subjects, and her views are not easily changed. She is a most religious re-ligious woman and devoted to the church, It has been hinted to such an extent that occasionally she seriously embarrasses the rector of her parish, I did not see how Tommy could preient Norheys' aunts, and the other I i MfW 3li I I iw i kt $&r Mgx . Ill; 1 Kr CHAPTER XX Continued 28 It was partly in Lystrian and partly In German. Troyte understands neither nei-ther language. He turned to me to Interpret for him. "What's he saying?" he asked. My German is rusty through long disuse, and I never knew any Lys- J trian. However, I think I picked up the main tiling the patriarch wanted to say. "As far as I can make out," I said, "he's trying to tell you that one Lord Norheys will do quite as well as another. an-other. The coronation is to be this afternoon." "But," said Troyte, "this young man Isn't Lord Norheys. Tell him that." I told him. After I had finished, Janet Church told him again, in much better German than mine. We did not make much Impression on the patriarch. All he said in reply was that if the Lystrians could not have Graf Bunny Norheys, they would be perfectly satisfied with Graf Tommy. "Tell him," said Troyte, "that this young man Isn't a count and isn't Norheys Nor-heys at all." Then Tommy joined in. "There's no use saying I'm not Norheys Nor-heys when I am," be said, "though I spell my name with two 'rV instead of an 'rh,' which strikes me as a more sensible way of doing it. As for my not being a count, if you can get that Into the patriarch's head, you'll do more than I can. I've been at him all morning and so has Miss Church. We've assured him over and over again that I'm not a count. But be can't be got to understand. Not that I care what he calls me, only I didn't want any irregularity about the marriage, mar-riage, which there might have been if I was married under a wrong name." "The confusion," I said, "in the patriarch's pa-triarch's mind probably arises from the custom, prevalent all over Europe, of every member of a titled family using the title. Take the Casimirs, for instance. I don't know how many Casimirs there are " "They're all Casimirs," said Tommy, waving his hand toward a group of Lystrian nobles. "All except seven." "And I'm sure," I said, "that they're all counts." "Every single one of them," said Tommy. "So you see," I said to Troyte, "how the patriarch's mistake arose. He naturally thought, that everyone called Norheys must be a marquis." "But he isn't, 'v said Troyte. "Is it worth while," I said, "correcting "correct-ing the mistake now?" Apparently Troyte thought it was. He insisted on having what he called a conference with the patriarch. I do not think the patriarch liked it, for there was a wedding feast waiting to be eaten in the great hall of the castle. But Troyte was firm. He and the patriarch and Cable went off, taking tak-ing Janet with them to act as interpreter. inter-preter. The princess and Lady Norheys Nor-heys went away together, their arms round each other. Poor Lady Norheys had been traveling fast for days. I think she wanted a bath and some clothes before she sat down to the banquet amid the magnificent nobles of Lystria. While I had no doubts at the time that Tommy would make quite as acceptable ac-ceptable a king of Lystria, as would Lord Norheys, I also had no doub! that Lady Norheys would have been a much more attractive queen consort than the somewhat plain Calypso. That matter, however, had been ended, and Tommy evidently was more than satisfied with the turn of events. As for Lord Norheys, I remembered a remark re-mark he had once made to me: "I'm not a prejudiced sort of fellow. What I always say about things is this: A fellow may not have been at a decent school, but he may be quite a decent sort of fellow. It's the same with girls." And he had won the girl of his choice. The loss of the throne of Lystria Lys-tria lie viewed with the utmost equanimity. equani-mity. 1 could not feel that I had been a great help, either to Troyte, Lord Norheys. Nor-heys. or my sister Emily, iu the whole matter, though it is worthy of record that Norheys still calls me "Uncle Bill" and comes to me for advice when be is in trouble, which is more or less frequently. fre-quently. He never by any chance takes my advice, however. 1 dare say he would get into worse trouble if he did. On this occasion I was not asked for advice. My nephew and his charming charm-ing bride evidently had a perfect understanding un-derstanding as to their future participation partici-pation in Lystrian affairs. I gathered that when Norheys took Tommy by the arm and spoke to him confidentially. "I say, you know, about your being king instead of me and all that. I'm jolly glad. Never really wanted the job a bit. Only promised to take it on to please Uncle Ned. All the same, don't you know, x think you owe me "I Think You Owe Me a Good Turn." ladies who were not his aunts from mewing if they wanted to. Norheys explained. "If a fellow I mean to say, a girl, is properly received at court, accepted by royalty, don't you know? then she's all right. It doesn't make a bit of difference in reality, of course, but the sort of people I'm thinking about believe it does. Now if you could see your way you and Calypso when you're king and queen if you'd take Viola into the ryal circle, why nobody could say a word after that, could the.v'" I saw Norheys' point at last. In the days of King Wladislaws a lady's reputation might not have been established estab-lished by the fact that she was a favorite fa-vorite at the Lystrian court. Cut things would be quite different when Tommy reigned. "Whatever we can do," said Tommy heartily, "will be done at once. Lady of the Bedchamber now? or Keeper of tiie Royal Robes? I don't know much about these jobs. But the best of them, whatever it is, will be Lady Norheys' this evening. And if I have an Order to bestow I haven't iu-quired iu-quired yet, but 1 supjio.se I have " "There's the Golden Adder of Lys tria." I said. "Very few people outside out-side the royal family have it." "It shall be yours," said Tommy to Norheys, "the very minute I can lay my hands on it." THE END |