charm of conjugal moderation and
fidelity. Just now she is receiving a visit from her son, on leave from
his military services abroad; and respecting the ordinary moral
conventions, which happen also to be hers, I do not go to see her while
the son's visit is being paid. Yet I apprehend that he cannot be in
ignorance of the facts."

"She has a grown-up son?" queried the King, still a little puzzled; and
Max smiled.

"A polite way," said he, "of inquiring as to her age. Yes: she is on the
verge of forty, and assures me that she will soon be showing it. You may
be interested also to hear that she is a Roman Catholic, has attacks of
devoutness which occasionally prescribe separation, and has twice
threatened, not in anger but with a most sincere reluctance, to break up
our peaceful establishment. I recognize that in the end her love for her
Church will probably prove stronger than her love for me--at all events
in practice. I have, indeed, some apprehension that her son's visit may
result in a turning of the balance, since he has now inherited his
father's property and can give his mother the position she has a right
to expect. If that should be so, you will find me very attentive to any
offer of marriage that any Court of western civilization (which now
includes Japan) may have to make. Have I said, sir, all that you wish to
know about my feelings in the matter?"

"What I don't understand," said the King, "is your idea about the
morality of all this."

"Really," replied the Prince, "I hardly know that I have any. It has
gone on so long; and anything that is regular and of long standing tends
to produce a moral feeling."

This arrested the King's attention. "You think so?" he interrogated; but
Max waived any decisive pronouncement.

"Perhaps," said he, "I do not quite know what morality means. I fancy
sometimes that its full meaning may be sprung upon me when I find myself
in love; or, if I am not destined to undergo that experience, on the day
when I learn that I am to become a father without having intended it.
Morality arises out of the proper or improper performance of social
obligations; and I have sometimes wondered whether society's most insane
treatment of illegitimacy would not have compelled me into a misalliance
with my 'mistress,' as you call her, had she ever----"

"Max!" cried the King, "you are outrageous!"

"Is that really how it strikes you?" inquired his son. "I feared,
rather, that it was an i