Hadrian made an effort to conquer His natural incapacity for coming near a subject at the first attempt; and put Himself to be concise. "Your Eminency knows that since--We forget the exact date--but since a very short time ago, no international obligations have existed which could restrain Egypt from legitimate attempts at emancipation. Nothing but Ottoman firmans held her. Very well. We discovered that when the King of England and the Sultan, last October, made alliance, the latter issued a firman in which England was named Protector of Egypt. Then (the speaker slightly smiled), when the task of arbitration was submitted to Us, We found that the German colonies in Africa, not only did not pay their way but, required a yearly subsidy of £1,500,000; and therefore, taking one thing with another, We arranged to give Germany sufficient employment for a century nearer home. She promptly recognized that 'megli' è fringuello in man' che tordo in frasca.' The fact is that she was only too glad to be rid of her own parasitic colonies, which had severed their connection from the parent stem, and derived their nutriment from other states: while the colonies of France which were epiphytic, having no existence apart from the source from which they sprang, were wiped out (as French colonies) when France was wiped out." "And no doubt Germany, in her pretty Gothic way, was in such a desperate hurry to grab France, that she forgot all about Egypt. D'ye know they say she's going to call her conquest Gallia again?" Semphill put in with a sniff. "And now I'll ask a question. Holy Father, may I smoke?" "But smoke!" Hadrian assented with pleasure; and held-out His Own hand for a cigarette. Some of the others did likewise; and the gear began to run much more easily. Van Kristen expressed joy that the Germans were not to have chances of doing more monkey business on the Erechtheion and the Akropolis at Athens. "Yes," Ragna meditatively continued: "I suppose I ought to have understood all that. But now, Holiness, there's another thing: why did the Sultan consent to evacuate Europe?" "Simply because, with all the examples which he has had lately, he goes in mortal terror of assassination. He has managed to persuade himself that he only can be warranted against that, as long as he is under the ægis of England. Well: seeing England and Turkey allied, We moved England and England moved Ismail. The former had sense: the latter, sentiment. But Ismail really is not half bad: in fact he's rather decent. If We only had another dear charming child-like naked Christian like Blessed Brother Francis----" "What?" said Carvale with animation. He happened to have noted that, when Hadrian rioted in superlatives, it meant no more than positives: but, when He negligently drawled comparatives, "not half bad" or "rather decent," the ultimate of praise was signified. "What?" the cardinal repeated. "We would send him to give points to Ismail's mollahs and dervishes."