"Most fair: most agreeable. I always learn from Englishmen and I shall learn from Your Holiness."
"Good. We believe that Montenegro is happy and contented under the paternal rule of Prince Nicholas."
(Click-click-click) "That is so, Holiness."
"We hear that Albania is shaping well under Prince Ghin Kastriotis."
(Click: a walk to the window and back; and more clicks) "Since the murder of Abdul Hamid, and the erection of Albania into a principality, progress has been astounding. The beautiful country, (click) the splendid people, are a prize to any ruler. Sultan Ismail is the only cloud in the sky. He does not approve of the loss of that slice of his empire. But Albania will take care of herself."
"Servia, and her yearning for the restoration of the Servian Empire?"
"Impossible. A nation which murders two kings in four years cannot be an Empire."
"Quite impossible. Bulgaria, a country of heretics of the most notorious and dreadful kind, atrocious brigands to a man, ruled (or rather not ruled) by a foreigner who is a contemptible cur."
"Your Holiness would propose——"
"The deposition of Prince Ferdinand—an easy task now that Russia has her hands full,—and the annexation of Bulgaria and Servia by Montenegro under the protection of Italy."