the lift of an eyebrow should evoke a gale. Life is nothing without variety—even a cabbage sometimes wears a paler or a darker shade of green.’’
“Dearest Cousin,” said the Prince, “why did you not think of me in your dilemma? I have long wished to show my appreciation of your extraordinarily unselfish choice of an empire, for in this quarter of the globe there is no spot really worthy the honour of being a Queen’s residence. But I had no means of ascertaining in what you were lacking, nor could I imagine anything, for it seemed to me that so lovely and so gifted a lady must naturally have the world at her disposal. And so I am more than glad to find that there is a way in which I can prove my devotion. You shall have a country literally made to order,—your wishes shall be obeyed and your vision materialised.”
“Oh, Cousin!” exclaimed the Queen, in amazed delight. “Can you—I mean, will you, really?”
“I will indeed!” cordially responded the Prince. “I have often thought the world a poorly-planned place,—too much specialisation about it altogether. Africa, for instance, all on the “g” note,—gigantic tracts of glabrous country, full of game, from gnats to gnus, producing gold and grain, gems and granite, offering many guerdons but more grievances, and cursed with a grim fatality that guillotines her few generous giants.
“Then there is America, all v’s,—vast, valuable, of vanished vernaculars and vernal volunteers, of valiant victors and verbious vassals, of versatile vixens and volatile virgins, of virile visages and voluble voices, of vigorous vocations and vulgar viands, of vain vauntings and venturesome velocity.
“And Asia, with festal, flaunting, fiery India, all fanatacism, fatalism, and fortitude,—and Europe, all cities, churches, and chateaux, civilisation, circumspection, and classification.
“But your country, sweet cousin, shall be unique in its omniformity; it shall be hot as India, yet cold as Canada, with a taste of sirocco from the deserts and a sample of the rains of the Lowlands. It shall have the culture of Europe, the wealth of Asia, the plains of Africa, the mountains of America. Without leaving your own estates you shall see the Alps of Switzerland, the rivers of France, the forests of Germany, the steppes of Russia, the fiords of Norway, the vales of Italy. You shall conceive from your boudoir windows an idea of the treasures of Ind, of the vast loneliness of Africa, of the commerce of America. And the minds and hearts of your people shall provide for you the art, the learning, the manners and customs of Europe. All this, fairest lady, shall you own in the islands I shall evoke for you from the vasty deep—and they shall be neither too spacious, nor unduly cramped, but exactly a fitting size for a lady’s occupation—a multum in parvo, and a natural museum.”
The Queen, who had listened, fascinated, enthralled, during this recital, gave a little gasping cry of delight as he paused.
“How clever you are, Cousin!” she exclaimed, with a little sigh of envy. “Only—only—doesn’t it sound rather as if it might turn out to be a sort of Army and Navy Stores kind of country?”
