"Is that king blind?"
"My uncle?"
"No. Italy."
"Not that I am aware of. Why does Your Holiness ask?"
The Supreme Pontiff stood up. "We thank Your Majesty for the sincerity of Your conversation; and assure you of Our good-will. We will ponder the matters which you have laid before Us."
"I hoped to have had——" But there was no mistaking the sealed face. And William II. was one of the cleverest men in the world; and he also was half an Englishman. "I should be greatly obliged if Your Holiness would write down that doctrine of Aristos. I should prize it greatly."
The Pope went to a writing table and produced a couple of lines in His wonderful fifteenth-century script.
"I will make this one of the heirlooms of Hohenzollern" said the Kaiser.
"May God guide you, well-beloved son."