"He would play the same game with Germany that he did with Italy," cried the count as soon as he was alone; "but from me he shall gain neither a Savoy nor a Nice!"
He left his cabinet, and repaired to his wife's drawing-room.
The ladies with Baron von Keudell sat around the tea-table.
The count entered, and greeted them affectionately.
"Have you seen the new 'Kladderadatsch?'" asked the countess, pointing to the well-known comic face upon a newspaper that lay on the table.
The count seized it, and turned to the large picture on the last page.
It represented an infirm old beggar, with the features of the Emperor Napoleon, standing before the door of a house, hat in hand, asking an alms. A window was open, and the minister-president was represented looking from it with a movement of refusal, and beneath was printed, "Nothing given away here."
With a merry laugh, the count threw the paper on the table.
"It is strange," he said, "how cleverly they often describe the situation by a drawing. There is more told in this picture than in many a long leading article."
At one draught he emptied the crystal goblet of foaming beer which was handed to him.