"I've heard the whole story from Mon-- I mean from the marquis. I know that you know it, too. He told me so. I understand that he didn't intend to tell me to-day,--that you were going to give me a surprise-party for my birthday. Thank you, girls, all the same. I--I--" He couldn't say any more just then, but sat staring away at nothing. "It was the news in the paper that changed it all," he went on at last. "Germany has invaded French territory and violated the neutrality of Belgium, so of course the war is inevitable. The marquis is much excited and has to go back at once to offer his estates and his assistance to the government. I shall go with him." He said all this in the strangest way, in a sort of dull, monotonous voice, as if he'd just learned it by heart and hadn't the slightest interest in it. It was the Imp who spoke first. "Louis," she said, very quietly, "were you sorry to hear about--about that other matter?" He didn't answer for a minute, and just sat looking off into space again. Finally he said, in the same monotonous voice: "It's _killing_ me!" "But, Louis," I found the courage to say, "it's really a wonderful thing. You ought to be proud of it." "Proud of _what_?" he demanded fiercely. "Of--of being the descendant of a French king," I said. "I've been proud as Lucifer all my life to be an _American_," he answered. "What are French kings to me? And I _am_ an American, too! Not a thing he's said can make me anything else. I don't care if my ancestor did come here from France. Every American's ancestors came from somewhere else, if you go back far enough. That doesn't alter things." "Yes, that is perfectly true. You are just as much an American as ever," I admitted, thinking of that side of it for the first time. "But if that's so, I can't see what you're so down-hearted about." "What do you think it means to me to give up all my plans and ambitions in life and go over to France and become a French nobleman by adoption; to devote myself to every interest but the one I'm wrapped up in and fitted for during all the rest of my days?" "But, Louis," began the Imp, "if you feel so--strongly about it, why do you have to do it? Couldn't you persuade Monsieur to let you do something else? He's simply devoted to you. Surely he'd be willing to meet _your_ wishes, somehow." "You don't understand," answered Louis. "Can't you see that I'm under an absolute _obligation_ to meet his wishes? I'd be an ungrateful brute, if I did anything else. You must realize what his ancestor did for mine. I wouldn't be in existence to-day, if it hadn't been for what the original marquis did to help the--the dauphin to escape. Why, I'm also under a tremendous obligation to the Mettots for the same reason. And then, there's something else you don't know about that makes it even worse. I haven't a cent in this world, nor ever have had, that hasn't been supplied by Mon--by the marquis."