Outside, the prince's carriage waited, drawn by two spirited black horses caparisoned in silver; magnificent thoroughbreds, which pawed the ground and champed their bits impatient of delay,--at sight of his master the smart footman in attendance threw the door open, touching his hat respectfully. We stepped in, I preceding my companion at his expressed desire; and as I sank back among the easy cushions, I felt the complacent consciousness of luxury and power to such an extent that it seemed as if I had left my days of adversity already a long way behind me. Hunger and happiness disputed my sensations between them, and I was in that vague light-headed condition common to long fasting, in which nothing seems absolutely tangible or real. I knew I should not properly grasp the solid truth of my wonderful good luck till my physical needs were satisfied and I was, so to speak, once more in a naturally balanced bodily condition. At present my brain was in a whirl,--my thoughts were all dim and disconnected,--and I appeared to myself to be in some whimsical dream from which I should wake up directly. The carriage rolled on rubber-tyred wheels and made no noise as it went,--one could only hear the even rapid trot of the horses. By-and-by I saw in the semi-darkness my new friend's brilliant dark eyes fixed upon me with a curiously intent expression. "Do you not feel the world already at your feet?" he queried half playfully, half ironically--"Like a football, waiting to be kicked? It is such an absurd world, you know--so easily moved. Wise men in all ages have done their best to make it less ridiculous,--with no result, inasmuch as it continues to prefer folly to wisdom. A football, or let us say a shuttlecock among worlds, ready to be tossed up anyhow and anywhere, provided the battledore be of gold!" "You speak a trifle bitterly, prince"--I said--"But no doubt you have had a wide experience among men?" "I have," he returned with emphasis--"My kingdom is a vast one." "You are a ruling power then?" I exclaimed with some astonishment--"Yours is not a title of honour only?" "Oh, as your rules of aristocracy go, it _is_ a mere title of honour"--he replied quickly--"When I say that my kingdom is a vast one, I mean that I rule wherever men obey the influence of wealth. From this point of view, am I wrong in calling my kingdom vast?--is it not almost boundless?" "I perceive you are a cynic,"--I said--"Yet surely you believe that there are some things wealth cannot buy,--honour and virtue for example?" He surveyed me with a whimsical smile.