So for a minute I watched them, shrinking Low in the gorse-bush shade; Then, like a mortal fool unthinking, Shouted aloud, "Well played!" Right in the midst of an elfin rally Sudden I stood alone; Far away over the distant valley Fairies and elves had flown. * * * * * A D'ANNUNZIO DIALOGUE. [From which will be perceived not only that telephonic communication exists between Fiume and Lucerne, but also that there is an easy way out of the difficulty with Greece if only the League of Nations will utilise the instrument that lies to their hand.] _D'Annunzio (testily)._ Hello, Lucerne! Hello! Is that the Greek KING? Confound this buzz! Is that you, TINO? _King Constantine._ Speaking. What do you want? I'm packing up my grip. _D'Ann._ D'ANNUNZIO speaks. Attend the trumpet's lip. Snatching a few brief moments, CONSTANTINE, Out of my business morning--eight to nine, Composing epic poems; nine to one, Consolidating our position in the sun (Sweet Alexandrine!), breakfast, bath and post, A raid or two on the Dalmatian coast, Speeches, parades and promulgating laws Which, being published to my followers, cause Loud cries of "Author!" and sustained applause; Such is the round of toil that leaves not limp Fiume's favoured Pontifex et Imp.-- I thought I'd ring you up. _King Con._ Well, well, what is it? _D'Ann._ I hear you are proposing to revisit Athens. _King Con._ Well, if I am, what's that to you? _D'Ann._ This, that, whilst gazing at the local blue The other day, I hit upon the plan Of conquering the Mediterranean, Including the AEgean and the finer Portions, most probably, of Asia Minor, And holding them as provinces beneath Fiume and my own imperial wreath. _King Con._ Go on, then, dash you. _D'Ann._ I shall soon begin; But I decline to have you butting in. Tyrants there still may be, but not the sort Discarded from a philo-Teuton Court; The tolerant warmth that sheds a kind of lustre Over a stout Ausonian filibuster Does not extend to thoroughly bad hats Like abdicated Hellene autocrats. And, if the Allies feel some slight reserve About resisting your confounded nerve, I, GABRIELE, do not. You may be A kind of subject satrap under me; If not, look out. You shall have cause to know The singing eagles of D'ANNUNZIO. _King Con._ I'll think it over.