Long I looked
and eagerly. I was roused by my brother's hand on my shoulder. He was
gazing down at me with a puzzled expression.
"It's a remarkable likeness, you see," said I. "I really think I had
better not go to Ruritania."
Rose, though half convinced, would not abandon her position.
"It's just an excuse," she said pettishly. "You don't want to do
anything. Why, you might become an ambassador!"
"I don't think I want to be an ambassador," said I.
"It's more than you ever will be," she retorted.
That is very likely true, but it is not more than I have been.
The idea of being an ambassador could scarcely dazzle me. I had been a
king!
So pretty Rose left us in dudgeon; and Burlesdon, lighting a cigarette,
looked at me still with that curious gaze.
"That picture in the paper--" he said.
"Well, what of it? It shows that the King of Ruritania and your humble
servant are as like as two peas."
My brother shook his head.
"I suppose so," he said. "But I should know you from the man in the
photograph."
"And not from the picture in the paper?"
"I should know the photograph from the picture: the picture's very like
the photograph, but--"
"Well?"
"It's more like you!" said my brother.
My brother is a good man and true--so that, for all that he is a married
man and mighty fond of his wife, he should know any secret of mine.
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