Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: he pestered me with small attentions, or worse still tried to entertain me with forced gaiety, I should have felt highly uncomfortable. The commander-in-chief was his usual self; silently critical, sneeringly amused. Of the young prince I formed an unfavourable opinion. He drank extremely strong whiskies and sodas, and smoked cigarettes (without asking permission) between the courses. Conversation he apparently had none, but he made up for this by gaping elaborately at intervals of every three or four minutes. After lunch a man brought in letters on a tray. There was one for me from my mother, and there was also a note for the King. " Excuse me, Saun- ders," said his Majesty opening his missive. " Please read your own letter." I opened my letter and read the first page and then, looking up, I saw that King Karl's sun-burned features wore a more serious expression than ever. He handed his note to General Meyer who read it without any alteration of his habitual calm. " Come and talk it over with me in my study," I overheard the King say in a voice little above a whisper, and he and the General rose and left the room. The result was to leave me face to face with the uncommunicative and world-weary Max. With a sudden determination to mitigate the ennui of our tete a tete I put back my half-read letter into my pocket and turned to my silent companion. " It is a magnificent view from here," I began. He gaped before replying. " Yes, devilish fine," he said. " I saw you on the Kastel run this morning," I pursued. " Indeed. Devilish nearly had a spill at the Devil's elbow. Good fun tobogganning, but it don't do after a late night and an injudicious blending of liqueurs." " Are you going down again this afternoon ? " ' No, I'm playing bridge with so...