A young man, wearing a number of Austrian orders, said, as he was being helped on with his coat:
"Are you going on to Von Stunnenberg's, Matsadi? Perhaps I could give you a lift."
"Thank you," said the Japanese. "Yes, I had thought of going."
"I'll wait for you," said the other, as he went out.
Matsadi took up his gloves and hat; he paused before the laughing German.
"Yes," said he, and there was a thoughtful look upon his face, "your parable was a good one. But does the story always end so? As the idle one lifts the fruit to his greedy lips, do I not see the patient toiler reaching out to snatch it from him?"
And as Matsadi hurried after the Austrian, the portly little man chuckled rapturously.
"They are so like children," said he.
As Ashton-Kirk shook hands with the secretary, the latter said: