"If I had," said I, "I would have gone to bed."
He nodded and kept on at the eye-glasses. At last they seemed to suit
him, and he shoved them into place and lit another cigarette.
"It seems to me," he said, at length, "the matter is wholly one of
personal inclination; with no obligation upon you to decide it upon any
other basis. Therefore, the first question is simply this: Which do
you prefer to be--an American officer and citizen or a Valerian
Archduke?"
"That is just what I don't know," said I.
"Well, would it be any easier to answer if I were to add: 'With a
chance for the Crown'?"
"That complicates it even more, I think."
He looked at me hard for a moment. I knew he was thinking of the
Princess and I shook my bead.
"Better look at it only on the first proposition," he said: "'an
American officer or an Archduke.'"
"If I accept," said I, "I shall play for all the stakes."
"Of course," said he, "but you may lose."
"It is more than likely I shall."
"Yet, even if you do, you will still be the Archduke," he argued.
"I think I would not accept it without the other chances," I said.
"Yet you would adventure those very chances without being sure of the
Archdukeship?" he insisted.
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