een confirmed, it had taken two of them to marry her, and by one or
another each of her four children had been well and truly baptized. They
had also preached sermons of eloquent optimism over the two who had so
prematurely died. And since she regarded all that they had done for her
as eminently successful in result, they stood out in her world as the
most efficient aids to the spiritual etceteras of life; and if any moral
difficulty dimmed for a moment the clear horizon of her soul she would
turn to the nearest archbishop for advice and encouragement.

And so the Archbishop came to see Prince Max in his convalescence, and
sat by his side and talked to him, and tried by various diplomatic
shifts to draw his confidence in the salutary direction desired by her
Majesty; for he and the Queen had held conversation together on the
matter. And Max, lying back at ease upon his cushions, and pretending to
be a little further from complete recovery than he really was, examined
that face of stern ecclesiastical mold, and seeking therein for some
likeness to his beloved found none.

Nevertheless he listened respectfully without protest to the voice of
the Church, when at last the Archbishop started to deliver his charge:
he heard how necessary it was for the nation that those who were its
rulers should set before it an example of regular family life, and how
inexpedient it was for that example to be too long delayed; he heard of
duty as though it came by inheritance to the accompaniment of a position
and a title, and of many other things that he had heard tell of before
and profoundly disagreed with; but for once he was not argumentative. He
let the Church speak to him and advise him to do the thing he was
longing to do, and to leave that life which (without a word said on the
matter) he was known to have been leading in the past. And when the
Archbishop had quite done and taken his departure, then Max rose up from
his bed of sickness and went down to Sister Jenifer and, presenting to
her gaze a broken and a contrite head and a rather pallid countenance,
spoke as follows: "I have been having a talk with your father, O
Beloved, and he tells me that I ought to marry you."

IV

On the next day Max received a visit from his father.

"Well," said the King, wishing to bestow commendation on a wound
honorably come by, "you have been on the side of law and order for once
at any rate."

"I?" cried Max.

"I hear that you assisted t