He was staring into a fire, which burned small and smokily.

"You think the day for kings is ended. I read it differently.
The world will ever have need of kings. If a nation cast out one
it will have to find another. And mark you, those later kings,
created by the people, will bear a harsher hand than the old race
who ruled as of right. Some day the world will regret having
destroyed the kindly and legitimate line of monarchs and put in
their place tyrants who govern by the sword or by flattering an
idle mob.

This belated dogma would at other times have set me laughing, but
the strange figure before me gave no impulse to merriment. I
glanced at Madame, and saw her face grave and perplexed, and I
thought I read a warning gleam in her eye. There was a mystery
about the party which irritated me, but good breeding forbade me
to seek a clue.

"You will permit me to retire, sir," I said. "I have but this
morning come down from a long march among the mountains east of
this valley. Sleeping in wayside huts and tramping those sultry
paths make a man think pleasantly of bed."

The Count seemed to brighten at my words. "You are a marcher,
sir, and love the mountains! Once I would gladly have joined
you, for in my youth I was a great walker in hilly places. Tell
me, now, how many miles will you cover in a day?"

I told him thirty at a stretch.