Do you know that profound thinker? He has been received by the Emperor.

Had you heard?" "I shall be delighted to meet them," said the prince.

" But tell me," he added with studied carelessness as if it had only just occurred to him, though the question he was about to ask was the chief motive of his visit, "is it true that the Dowager Empress wants Baron Funke to be appointed first secretary at Vienna? The baron by all accounts is a poor creature.