And so the girl did.

THE DECREE OF DUKE DEODONATO

"It is a most anxious thing--to be an absolute ruler," said Duke
Deodonato, "but I have made up my mind. The Doctor has convinced me
(here Dr. Fusbius, Ph.D., bowed very low) that marriage is the best,
noblest, wholesomest, and happiest of human conditions."

"Your Highness will remember--" began the President of the Council.

"My lord, I have made up my mind," said Duke Deodonato.

Thus speaking, the Duke took a large sheet of foolscap paper, and wrote
rapidly for a moment or two.

"There," he said, pushing the paper over to the President, "is the
decree."

"The decree, sir?"

"I think three weeks afford ample space," said Duke Deodonato.

"Three weeks, sir?"

"For every man over twenty-one years of age in this Duchy to find
himself a wife."

"Your Highness," observed Dr. Fusbius with deference, "will consider
that between an abstract proposition and a practical measure--"

"There is to the logical mind no stopping-place," interrupted Duke
Deodonato.

"But, sir," cried the President, "imagine the consternation which
this--!"

"Let it be gazetted to-night," said Duke Deodonato.

"I would venture," said the President, "to remind your Highness that
you are yourself a bachelor."

"Laws," said Duke Deodonato, "do not bind the Crown unless the Crown is
expressly mentioned."

"True, sir; but I humbly conceive that it would be pessimi exempli--"

"You are right; I will marry myself," said Duke Deodonato.

"But, sir, three weeks! The hand of a princess cannot be requested and
granted in--"

"Then find me somebody else," said Deodonato; "and pray leave me. I
would be alone;" and Duke Deodonato waved his hand to the door.

Outside the door the President said to the Doctor,

"I could wish, sir, that you had not convinced his Highness."

"My lord," rejoined the Doctor, "truth is my only preoccupation."

"Sir," said the President, "are you married?"

"My lord," answered the Doctor, "I am not."

"I thought not," said the President, as he folded up the decree, and
put it in his pocket.

It is useless to deny that Duke Deodonato's decree caused considerable
disturbance in the Duchy. In the first place, the Crown lawyers raised
a puzzle of law. Did the word 'man' as used in the decree, include
'woman'?

The President shook his head, and referred the question to his Highness.

"It seems immaterial," observed the Duke. "If a man marries, a w