terests must appear to have covered the ground mapped out for it.

For this reason Cabinet ministers had been meeting and deciding on a
good many things behind the King's back; and the "Spiritual Limitations
Bill"--all the world has since heard of it--was the device they had
adopted as most suitable to their needs. They proposed to bring it
forward in a late winter session.

On the day before Council a draft of the proposed bill reached the hands
of the King; and his Majesty on reading it and after referring once
again to certain passages in Professor Teller's books of history, smiled
gleefully and rubbed his hands; for though he had the heart of a
vegetarian he was beginning to scent blood and rather to enjoy the smell
of it.

II

The Council was already standing about the board when the King entered.
Having bowed them to their seats he formally called on the Prime
Minister to read the presented draft. This was done, and through the
whole of it without a word of interruption his Majesty sat quiet and as
good as gold.

Polite exposition was about to follow; but as the Prime Minister essayed
an enlargement of his text his flight was stayed.

"Gentlemen," said the King, "I am dissatisfied with my position."

All turned amazed; the Professor with less amazement than the rest, for
he observed, as confirmation of his suspicions, that the King's hand
rested upon a bulky pile of manuscript.

"In this bill," said his Majesty, "you are proposing to remodel a
Constitution that has lasted in an unwritten form for five hundred
years. I see in your proposed emendations that the Crown is frequently
mentioned, but its powers are nowhere defined--unless that constantly
recurring phrase 'on the advice of his ministers' is a definition which
you wish to see indefinitely extended. Otherwise there is no open
indication that the Crown's powers are affected. But the question of
constitutional rights as between the Bishops and the Laity to-day may
to-morrow be a question involving the Crown also; and if you now mean to
impose limits on one branch of the legislature, you must extend your
definitions to cover the whole ground. I require, gentlemen, if this
matter is to be carried any further, that my own powers and prerogatives
shall be as accurately defined and set as much on a working basis as
those of your two Chambers."

"'Working basis' is distinctly good," murmured Professor Teller, and
looked admiringly at the King, whom the