otte afterwards found out; for the moment
she only thought that she had broken the maternal conventions; things
which she did not hold in much regard.

II

Bad-as-Bad had now been in the enjoyment of its Jingalese visitors for
over a month. The town prided itself on knowing how to behave to
royalty; and every day when the King went down to take the waters, or
strolled in the municipal gardens, people pretended not to look at him;
and only when he was not actually there did the conductor of the famous
band, in the ranks of which operatic first-fiddles kept themselves in
practice during their summer holidays--only then did the conductor throw
out a delicate compliment, for chance ear-shot, by performing, with
variations such as were heard nowhere else, the National Anthem of
Jingalo. But each day the musical program was submitted for his
Majesty's approval; and if he or the Queen made any suggestion--as it
was always hoped they would--then so surely as they approached the kiosk
the strains of that particular selection were heard, telling them that
Bad-as-Bad was always in attendance upon their wishes, always anxious to
give them pleasure, always appreciative of their presence in its midst.

Every day the King paid for his six glasses of water at the
fountain-head; every day he bought a buttonhole from the pretty
flower-seller in peasant costume who was not herself a peasant at all;
every day he bought a Jingalese newspaper at the garden kiosk, and sat
under the shade of the trees reading it; and nobody, looking at him,
would know that even there he was assiduously followed, ringed round and
watched by six detectives, nor could they have any idea how carefully
the bona fides of each newly arrived visitor was examined, inquired
into, and verified all the way back along the route from place of
arrival to place of origin; nay, how thoroughly the luggage of any who
were in the least suspicious was searched behind their backs in order to
discover whether they had any political opinions likely to prove
dangerous to a King taking his holiday.

When the Queen drove out little girls sometimes threw flowers into her
carriage, but never often enough to make it a nuisance or to seem
mechanical; and when they happened to be very small the Queen would stop
and ask them their name and their age and how many brothers and sisters
they had; and then a silver coin would pass to the hands of the patient
little sentinel. And when the Que