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Beliani likened him to Bayard, it is true, and Marulitch had scoffingly adopted the simile; but that was because each thought Bayard not admirable, but a fool.
"The notion is preposterous!" growled Julius, gaining courage from Stampoff's bold denunciation; but Beliani tried to temporize. "We are far too excited to deal with this vexed affair to-night," he said. "The King is naturally aggrieved by a trying experience, and is hardly in a fit state of mind to consider the grave issues raised by his words. Let us forget what we have just heard.
"Ask Prince and Princess Delgrado to come here," he said. "Send to General Stampoff and tell him that the King urgently desires his presence. I believe that Monsieur Beliani and Count Julius Marulitch are in the smoking-room with Monsieur Nesimir. Ask those three gentlemen also to join me." The attendant saluted and withdrew. Alec examined the door to make sure that the key was in the lock.
There was a tumult of objurgations in the outer passage; but this King in spite of himself paid no heed. "I?" he gasped again, with relaxed jaws. "You, sire," cried Marulitch. "Our line is restored. There will be fighting, of course; but what of that? One audacious week will see you enthroned once more in the Schwarzburg. Ah! Here come Stampoff and Beliani.
"Was it with reference to Monsieur Beliani? I understood that his appointment to the Ministry of Finance was agreed to unanimously." Beliani coughed, with the modesty of a man who might not discuss his own merits. The President hesitated before he answered this direct question.
Monsieur Beliani had no rival; no one doubted his ability as a financier. "The dispute arose in connection with my forthcoming marriage. It was suggested that I should contract an alliance with a Princess of some reigning house in the Balkans. The obvious corollary of that view was that Miss Joan Vernon could not be regarded as a suitable bride for the King of Kosnovia.
I may say at once that I regard it as the most friendly act you could possibly have performed so far as I am concerned; but I know you well enough to be a little dubious." Beliani smiled and spread wide his hands with the deprecatory gesture of the Levantine. Long years of residence in the capitals of Europe had not wholly effaced the servile mannerisms of the Eastern money-lender.
"I want to consult my mother and you as to a certain matter," he said, answering Prince Michael with apparent nonchalance. "I shall not detain you very long. Beliani, Julius, and Monsieur Nesimir are in the building, and then we only await Stampoff with whom, by the way, I almost succeeded in quarreling to-day."
Swarthy old Stampoff, Prince Michael Delgrado, the pink and white Julius Marulitch, even the olive skinned, oval faced Beliani, might have mingled with the throng on the platform and found each his racial kith and kin; not so Alec.
I am out of business as a King, for good and all, and the sooner I cross the frontier, the better it will be for my health." "Honor bright, Alec?" "Every syllable. Now, get a hustle on!" There was a tap at the door, and a servant entered with a note for the King. It was from Constantine Beliani, and written in French.
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