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 I smiled. "At any rate they have made me the offer, and I have decided to accept it. But I preferred to come and tell you, after our interesting little conversation of three days ago."

"That means, then, you will remain in Sofia?"

"My house is nearly ready for my occupation, and I shall hope to be honoured by your presence in it as my guest."

"Umph! You have not forgotten our conversation, I see."

"It was scarcely one to be forgotten."

"And I understand you claim the rights of a British subject."

"I am half a Roumanian, General, with considerable possessions there," I returned, equivocally.

"You are a very ambitious, or a very reckless, or a very clever young man, Count. You have thought over your course well?"

"I am not given to act on impulse."

"Yet cleverer men than you have tried unsuccessfully the dangerous policy of attempting to ride on two horses at once."

"I can but fail," I answered, indifferently.

"Then you decline to enrol yourself in my service?"

"I neither decline nor accept, General." The reply was unwelcome, and he sat a moment with brows knitted.

"You will fail, sir, as certainly as you make the attempt. But I must know, in view of future possibilities, whether you claim the status of a British subject or that of a Roumanian Count, or whether, again, I am to regard you merely as a captain in a Bulgarian regiment."

"I shall be in the unique position of enjoying all three," said I, and noticed with some amusement the