“Baron,” said Anthony. “I must throw myself upon your mercy. I have so far strained the honour of an English gentleman as to travel to this country under an assumed name. I represented myself to you as Mr. James McGrath⁠—but you must see for yourself that the deception involved was infinitesimal. You are doubtless acquainted with the works of Shakespeare, and his remarks about the unimportance of the nomenclature of roses? This case is the same. The man you wanted to see was the man in possession of the memoirs. I was that man. As you know only too well, I am no longer in possession of them. A neat trick. Baron, a very neat trick. Who thought of it, you or your principal?”

“His Highness’s own idea it was. And for anyone but him to carry it out he would not permit.”

“He did it jolly well,” said Anthony, with approval. “I never took him for anything but an Englishman.”

“The education of an English gentleman did the prince receive,” explained the Baron. “The custom of Herzoslovakia it is.”