people
minimize the material means that were the necessary prologue to the
miraculous."

Thus did they converse; but I will not pursue their conversation further.
It will be enough to say that in further floods of talk Mr. Balmy
confirmed what George had said about the Banks having lost their hold
upon the masses. That hold was weak even in the time of my father's
first visit; but when the people saw the hostility of the Banks to a
movement which far the greater number of them accepted, it seemed as
though both Bridgeford and the Banks were doomed, for Bridgeford was
heart and soul with the Banks. Hanky, it appeared, though under thirty,
and not yet a Professor, grasped the situation, and saw that Bridgeford
must either move with the times, or go. He consulted some of the most
sagacious Heads of Houses and Professors, with the result that a
committee of enquiry was appointed, which in due course reported that the
evidence for the Sunchild's having been the only child of the sun was
conclusive. It was about this time--that is to say some three years
after his ascent--that "Higgsism," as it had been hitherto called, became
"Sunchildism," and "Higgs" the "Sunchild."

My father also learned the King's fury at his escape (for he would call
it nothing else) with my mother. This was so great that though he had
hitherto been, and had ever since proved himself to be, a humane ruler,
he ordered the instant execution of all who had been concerned in making
either the gas or the balloon; and his cruel orders were carried out
within a couple of hours. At the same time he ordered the destruction by
fire of the Queen's workshops, and of all remnants of any materials used
in making the balloon. It is said the Queen was so much grieved and
outraged (for it was her doing that the material ground-work, so to
speak, had been provided for the miracle) that she wept night and day
without ceasing three whole months, and never again allowed her husband
to embrace her, till he had also embraced Sunchildism.

When the rain came, public indignation at the King's action was raised
almost to revolution pitch, and the King was frightened at once by the
arrival of the promised downfall and the displeasure of his subjects. But
he still held out, and it was only after concessions on the part of the
Bridgeford committee, that he at last consented to the absorption of
Sunchildism into the Musical Bank system, and to its establishment as the
r