"You know very well, dear lord, that it is for your affairs that I am so anxious to be up and doing; the departure of the embassy which you are sending to Kioto cannot be indefinitely delayed."
"Why did you ask me as a special favor to make you chief of that embassy?"
"Is it not my delight to serve you?"
"That is not your only motive," said Fide-Yori with a smile.
"You allude to my supposed love for Fatkoura," thought Nagato, smiling in his turn.
"If the Prince is reasonable, if he gives up this over-excitement which exhausts him, he may start in three days," said the doctor.
"Thanks!" cried Nagato; "that news is better than all your drugs."
"My drugs are not to be despised," said the doctor; "and you must take the one which I will send you presently."
Then he bowed low to the King and his noble patient, and retired.
"Ah!" exclaimed Fide-Yori when he was alone with his friend, "your impatience to be off proves to me that I am not mistaken. You are in love, Iwakura; you are beloved; you are happy!" And he heaved a deep sigh.