“Yes, yes,” Karl said, “I know that, but I can assure you it is very difficult for a young man like myself to join the Prince of Wales’s set. They are all very smart, very fast and very sure of their own importance.”
“Surely,” the Baron asked, Queen Victoria, who is still mourning her German husband, is prepared to receive you?”
“Of course!” Karl replied. “Her Majesty was extremely gracious and talked to me for a long time about her family, with whom I have a slight acquaintance. But it is not her family in whom we are interested.”
“Of course not,” the Baron agreed.” It is the Marquis who you must arrange to meet and persuade him that the one subject in which you are really interested is the development of weapons like the gun.”
“I assure you, Baron, I am doing my best,” Karl asserted
