“So I have understood.”
“An American citizen is on a level with royalty.”
“That is admitted.”
“Even the Dowager Empress of China, when engaging me in her service, though she raised my ancestors to the rank of marquises, did not ask me to forego my citizenship of the United States.”
“That is not necessary,” the Privy Councillor protested.
“Explain yourself, if you will be so good.”
“A man may be an American citizen, although by birth he is a Frenchman, a German, or even a negro. You yourself are a Pole, I believe.”
I could only bow.
“Now I do not propose that you should relinquish your political allegiance, but only that you should exchange your Polish nationality for a Japanese one.”
“But how, sir?”