Every time you use the telegraph to send
orders in an emperor's name you commit an anachronism."
The count frowned and growled.
"Don't talk to me like that. It is not amusing."
"No; it is not funny. To see men like you fetching and carrying for dull
kings, who would drop through the gallows or go to planting turnips
without your brains--it does not appeal to my sense of humor or to my
imagination."
"You put it coarsely," remarked the old man grimly. "I shall perhaps have
a statue when I am gone."
"Quite likely; and mobs will rendezvous in its shadow to march upon the
royal palaces. If I were coming back to Europe I should go in for
something more interesting than furnishing brains for sickly kings."
"I dare say! Very likely you would persuade them to proclaim democracy
and brotherhood everywhere."
"On the other hand, I should become king myself."
"Don't be a fool, Mr. John Armitage. Much as you have grieved me, I
should hate to see you in a madhouse."
"My faculties, poor as they are, were never clearer. I repeat that if I
were going to furnish the brains for an empire I should ride in the state
carriage myself, and not be merely the driver on the box, who keeps the
middle of the road and looks out for sharp corners.
Pages:
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30