point the
lady is adamant)--I say all this in order to let the whole case be
stated before giving you the necessary shock----"

"Oh, go on!" groaned the King.

"Conditionally, then, I am already engaged to be married."

The King's mind went vacuously all round the Courts of Europe, and
returned to him again empty.

"Whom to?" he inquired.

Max made his announcement with stately formality.

"The lady who honors me with her affection is the daughter of our
Primate Archbishop."

"Good Heavens!" cried the King. "Does _he_ know of it?"

"No more than the babe unborn; two days ago he sat there telling me it
was my duty to marry; and I thinking of his daughter all the time."

"Impossible!" exclaimed the King.

"I knew you would say that,--so did she. That I believe is why she gave
me her consent."

"Then she does not really----"

"Love me? Very much, I believe. But her life is a strange mingling of
sincerity and self-sacrifice; and it will in some strange way give her
almost as much joy to have owned that her heart is utterly mine, and
then to be irrevocably parted, as it would to share all the splendor of
my fortune as heir to a throne."

"You know, Max, that it is quite impossible."

"Yes; by all the conventions of the last three hundred years, so it is.
That is why I trust that you will rise to the occasion, sir, and do what
is not expected of you. To allow your son and heir to marry the daughter
of the great political antagonist of your present Prime Minister in
itself creates an almost impossible situation--for party politics, I
mean. But as party politics have already created an almost impossible
situation for monarchy, the best thing to do is to have a return hit at
party politics. I believe that the monarchy will survive."

"No, no, Max," said the King, "this won't do."

"You know that it would greatly upset the Prime Minister."

"I have other ways of doing that," said the King.

"Without upsetting yourself?"

This gave his Majesty a little start. "It depends what you mean by
upsetting; perhaps it would upset you much more. But there, we won't
talk about that!" For this was danger-point, and having touched it, he
hurried cautiously away from it. Then he returned to the original
charge: "Whatever put the idea into your head?"

"A vision of beauty that I had not believed to be possible."

"Is she so very beautiful, then?"

"You have seen her, sir, and you have not remembered her. I did not me