Sylvia sat watching the trio, thinking how much more vividly present Jimmy seemed to be than either of the other two--the prince with his greenish complexion never really well shaved, and his turn-down collars that made his black suit more melancholy, or her father with his light, plaintive eyes and big ears. She was glad that she was not going to resemble her father except perhaps in being short and in the shape of her wide nose; yet she was not really very short; it was only that her mother had been so tall; perhaps, too, when her hair grew long again her nose would not seem so wide. The letter was finished and Jimmy was reading it aloud: SIR,--I have the honor to ask if, in the probable event of a great dynastic change taking place in one of the chief countries of Europe, you would welcome the post of court painter, naturally at a suitable remuneration. If you read the daily papers, as no doubt you do, you will certainly have come to the conclusion that neither the present ruling house nor what is known as the Carlist party had any real hold upon the affections of the Spanish people. Verb. sap. Interesting changes may be foreshadowed, of which I am not yet at liberty to write more fully. Should you entertain the proposal I shall be happy to wait upon you with further particulars. I have the honor to be, sir, Your obedient servant, JOSEPHE-ERNESTE, PRINCE DE CONDÉ. "Do you know what it sounds like?" said Henry. "Mind I'm not saying this because I didn't write the letter myself. It sounds to me like a cross between a prophecy in Old Moore's Almanack and somebody trying to sell a patent knife-cleaner." "There's a good deal in what you say," Monkley agreed, in rather a dissatisfied tone. Henry was so much flattered by the reception of his criticism that he became compassionate to the faults of the letter and tried hard to point out some of its merits. "After all," said Jimmy, "the great thing is that the prince has signed it. If his name doesn't draw Master Godfrey, no letters are going to. We'll send it off as it is." So the letter was sent. Two days afterward the prince arrived with the news that Godfrey Hurndale had called upon him and that he had been inexpressibly happy at the prospect of meeting the _de jure_ King of France and Spain. "Bring him round to-morrow afternoon about tea-time," said Monkley. "You haven't forgotten the family history, Henry?" Henry said that he had not forgotten a single relation, and that he damned them severally each morning in all their titles while he was dressing.