eep away.)

FATHER (an elderly, overdressed man with an eye-glass and military
bearing crosses to the doctor). What? Are you here?

DOCTOR. Yes, Father-in-law. I'm here. I go everywhere he goes.

FATHER. It's too late in the day to call me father-in-law. Besides, I'm
_his_ father-in-law now.

DOCTOR. Does he know you?

FATHER. No. He's not had that honour; and I must ask you to preserve my
incognito. Is it true he's made gold?

DOCTOR. So it's said. But it's certain he left his wife while she was in
childbed.

FATHER. Does that mean I can expect a third son-in-law soon? I don't
like the idea! The uncertainty of my position makes me hate being
a father-in-law at all. Of course, I've nothing to say against it,
since....

(The tables have now been cleared; the cloths and the candelabra have
been removed, so that the tables themselves, which are merely boards
supported on trestles, are all that remain. A big stoneware jug has
been brought in and small jugs of simple form have been put on the high
table. The people in rags sit down next to the STRANGER at the high
table; and the FATHER sits astride a chair and stares at him.)

CAESAR (knocking on the table). Gentlemen! This feast has been called
royal, not on account of the excellence of the service which, on the
contrary, has been wretched; but because the man, whom we have honoured,
is a king, a king in the realm of the Intellect. Only I am able to judge
of that. (One of the people in rags laughs.) Quiet. Wretch! But he's
more than a king, he's a man of the people, of the humblest. A friend
of the oppressed, the guardian of fools, the bringer of happiness to
idiots. I don't know whether he's succeeded in making gold. I don't
worry about that, and I hardly believe it... (There is a murmur. Two
policemen come in and sit by the door; the musicians come down and take
seats at the tables.)... but supposing he has, he has answered all the
questions that the daily press has been trying to solve for the last
fifty years.... It's only an assumption--

STRANGER. Gentlemen!

RAGGED PERSON. No. Don't interrupt him.

CAESAR. A mere assumption without real foundation, and the analysis may
be wrong!

ANOTHER RAGGED PERSON. Don't talk nonsense!

STRANGER. Speaking in my capacity as guest of honour at this gathering I
should say that it would be of interest to those taking part to hear the
grounds on which I've based my proof....

CAESAR. We don't want to hear that. No,