'Where is he stopping?' asked Sir Rupert.
'At Paulo's Hotel, papa.'
'Paulo's Hotel,' said Mrs. Selwyn; 'that seems to be quite the place for exiled potentates to put up at. The ex-King of Capri stopped there during his recent visit, and the chiefs from Mashonaland.'
'And Don Herrera de la Mancha, who claims the throne of Spain,' said the Duke.
'And the Rajah of Khandur,' added Mrs. Selwyn, 'and the Herzog of Hesse-Steinberg, and ever so many more illustrious personages. Why do they all go to Paulo's?'
'I can tell you,' said Soame Rivers. 'Because Paulo's is one of the best hotels in London, and Paulo is a wonderful man. He knows how to make coffee in a way that wins a foreigner's heart, and he understands the cooking of all sorts of eccentric foreign dishes; and, though he is as rich as a Chicago pig-dealer, he looks after everything himself, and isn't in the least ashamed of having been a servant himself. I think he was a Portuguese originally.'
'And our Dictator went there?' Mrs. Selwyn questioned.
Soame Rivers answered her, 'Oh, it is the right thing to do; it poses a distinguished exile immediately. Quite the right thing. He was well advised.'
'If only he had been as well advised in other matters,' said Mr. Selwyn.
Then Hiram Borringer, who had hitherto kept silent, after his wont, spoke.