"Joachim wanted to be of the party," said Augustus.
"And tell Mamma all—not if I know myself. It’s time the kid was in bed anyhow," said the Crown Prince with fine scorn, for Joachim was only thirteen years old at the time.
"He will tell all the same," suggested Albert.
"And will get a thrashing for his pains. Besides, I shall withdraw my allowance of three marks per week. Tell him so; that will settle the mamma-child."
"He shall have it straight from the shoulder; you can rely on that, Duke of Oels," said Eitel.
"Oels," repeated Eitel, "why didn’t you inherit Sibyllenort too? The idea, giving Sibyllenort to those sanctimonious Saxons."
"Rotten, to be sure. But old William was eccentric, you know, like his brother, the Diamond Duke," said the Crown Prince.
"The Diamond Duke; wasn’t he the chap who made some Swiss town erect him a monument, omitting the proviso that it must not tumble down?" asked Albert, who sets up as a scholar.
"Precisely so, and the monument is dust."
Prince William shook with laughter. "But that’s not the question before the house." Willy assumed the oratorical pose favoured by Herr Liebknecht, the Socialist. "Boys," he continued, actually using the German equivalent for the familiar term, "what do you think? Father presumed to find me a wife—me!"
He repeated the personal pronoun three or four times with increasing emphasis, while beating the board with his clenched fist—a very good imitation of the War Lord himself.
"I am not beholden to him financially like you, not at all," cried the Crown Prince. "He can keep his miserable fifteen thousand thalers per annum.
"No," he added quickly, after reflection; "it will be the greater punishment to take his money."
The Crown Prince continued: "And if father dares propose wife-finding for _me_, what will he do to you, boys? If he has his way, you won’t marry the girl of your choice, but some political or military possibility. There is only one way to prevent it," insisted the Crown Prince. "We must all stand together, declaring our firm determination to do our own wooing without interference from father. He will plead politics, interests of the Fatherland. But for my part, I won’t have father impose a wife on me, even if the alliance gained us half of Africa or Persia."