, when guilty of provoking the sentiment of hostility, to
submit to the jurisdiction of our Court. All I want you to see is the
notion. We raise the shield against the cowardly bully which the laws
have raised against the bloody one. "And gentlemen,"' my father resumed
his oration, forgetting my sober eye for a minute--'"Gentlemen, we
are the ultimate Court of Appeal for men who cherish their honour,
yet abstain from fastening it like a millstone round the neck of their
common-sense." Credit me, Richie, the proposition kindled. We cited Lord
Edbury to appear before us, and I tell you we extracted an ample apology
to you from that young nobleman. And let me add, one that I, that we,
must impose it upon an old son to accept. He does! Come, come. And you
shall see, Richie, society shall never repose an inert mass under my
leadership. I cure it; I shake it and cure it.'

He promenaded the room, repeating: 'I do not say I am possessed of a
panacea,' and bending to my chin as he passed; 'I maintain that I can
and do fulfil the duties of my station, which is my element, attained
in the teeth of considerable difficulties, as no other man could, be he
prince or Prime Minister. Not one,' he flourished, stepping onward. 'And
mind you, Richie, this,' he swung round, conscious as ever of the
critic in me, though witless to correct his pomp of style, 'this is
not self-glorification. I point you facts. I have a thousand
schemes--projects. I recognize the value of early misfortune. The
particular misfortune of princes born is that they know nothing of
the world--babies! I grant you, babies. Now, I do. I have it on my
thumbnail. I know its wants. And just as I succeeded in making you a
member of our Parliament in assembly, and the husband of an hereditary
princess--hear me--so will I make good my original determination to be
in myself the fountain of our social laws, and leader. I have never,
I believe--to speak conscientiously--failed in a thing I have once
determined on.'

The single wish that I might be a boy again, to find pleasure in his
talk, was all that remained to combat the distaste I had for such
oppressive deliveries of a mind apparently as little capable of being
seated as a bladder charged with gas. I thanked him for getting rid of
Edbury, and a touch of remorse pricked me, it is true, on his turning
abruptly and saying: 'You see me in my nakedness, Richie. To you and my
valet, the heart, the body!' He was too sympathetic