t
performance. It is a risky and indecent piece, but no one will object,
on that score, to its receiving the royal patronage."

"How possibly can it be indecent," protested the King, "when it has
already run for five hundred nights at one of our leading theaters?"

Max smiled. "Father," he said, "in all your life have you ever once been
in a crowd--formed part of it, I mean? Well, then, how can you tell? I
have. There is plenty of indecency in a Jingalese crowd--especially
indecent suggestion; and it is crowds the theaters have to cater for."

"Still, they have the Censor to reckon with."

"The Censor!" exclaimed Max. "Have you ever asked the Lord Functionary,
who controls him, to show you the text of the plays he passes?--or gone
further in order to compare them with those he does not pass? Till you
have, you know nothing about the Censor's protective powers. He merely
protects the existing order of things, like yourself; whatever is paying
and popular it becomes his duty to countenance. Well, all that is
strictly within your own department, for the supervision of the morals
of the stage is still a royal prerogative outside parliamentary control.
And I tell you this--that if you were to begin exercising your
prerogative conscientiously you would get into more intimate touch with
the popular will than would suit the calculations of your ministers. As
for the Lord Functionary, he would probably resign. He might be glad of
the excuse. Just now there is a considerable row on, and he finds
himself in hot water. When you see him you had better ask him about it;
and as he is technically the keeper of your conscience you really have a
concern in the matter. What has he been doing? Oh, merely drawing the
usual invidious distinction between adultery treated seriously and
adultery treated as a joke. Under this latter and more popular form it
is now occupying with success half the theaters in Jingalo. And if you
want to see the deeps open, and understand what they contain,--well,
there you have your cue: follow it! Only do that, and you will light
such a candle--Ah! now I am quoting from English history; and as I am
only concerned with that of Jingalo--I perceive that my present chapter
has come to an end. May I take another cigar?"

III

All this time the King had sat cautiously imbibing the stimulus of his
son's words. They sent a curious glow through his system; for they
touched on the very point which was now daily eng