“Is there any ink in it?” asked the Prince—which threw us into a renewed paroxysm of laughter.
The Prince took the pen and very kindly autographed for us seven photographs of himself. He offered us more, but he felt that seven was about all we could use. We were still suffocated with laughter over the Prince’s wit; His Highness was still signing photographs when an equerry appeared and whispered in the Prince’s ear. His Highness, with the consummate tact to be learned only at a court, turned quietly without a word and left the room.
We never, in all our experience, remember seeing a prince—or a mere man for the matter of that—leave a room with greater suavity, discretion, or aplomb. It was a revelation of breeding, of race, of long slavery to caste. And yet, with it all, it seemed to have a touch of finality about it—a hint that the entire proceeding was deliberate, planned, not to be altered by circumstance. He did not come back.
••••••
We understand that he appeared later in the morning at a civic reception in the costume of an Alpine Jaeger, and attended the matinée in the dress of a lieutenant of police.
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