"Hardly. What's it like?"
"The climate and Government of my country are both tropical."
"I suppose you mean intense, and subject to violent changes."
The Secretary looked out of the window at the most uninteresting view of the Thames, saying:
"I think we're going to have a thunderstorm."
"Am I to take that remark in a political sense?" inquired the Lieutenant.
"I don't believe I've told you," said his host abruptly, discontinuing an inopportune subject, "that I'm a South American only by force of circumstances. My parents were born in the States."
"My dear fellow," Kingsland hastened to assure him, "I never had the least intention of prying into your affairs, domestic or diplomatic. I was merely wondering if the country you represent brought forth any staple products, which would yield a profitable return to foreign investment?"
The Secretary mentioned one—which was said to be connected prominently with the treaty which was the subject of his recent visit to the Foreign Office—and so was naturally uppermost in his mind—"but," he added, "that staple is practically a monopoly, controlled by a firm of manufacturers, whose headquarters are in London, and, unless they fail, the outside public would have little chance in the same field."
"I suppose their failure is hardly likely."