r as to your determination to proceed with it?"

The Prime Minister was very urbane. "Your Majesty has been good enough
to indicate a date when all difficulties will be removed."

It was a sufficient statement of what was in store.

"Thank you," said the King, "I did wish to know. Have you done well at
the by-elections?"

"Beyond the inevitable tear-and-wear due to our period of office we have
nothing to complain of."

"I have been longer in office than you," said the King, smiling rather
sadly, "and I suppose that in my case the inevitable wear-and-tear has
been proportionately greater. You will make allowances, therefore, if I
have been slow in arriving at my conclusion. After the date we agreed
upon I think you will have no ground for complaint."

"I hope your Majesty has never regarded as a complaint the advice which
I have felt bound to offer."

"There is a complaint somewhere," said the King; "perhaps a
constitutional one. All I wanted to avoid was quack remedies."

He was rather pleased with himself at thus rounding off the discussion:
for while reiterating his promise he had indicated that his own opinion
was quite as unchanged as that of his ministers. And so with a little
time still left in which to turn round he bethought him of the duty
which lay on him to set his house in order against future events. And
then it struck him how very important it was that Max should now "settle
down" and eliminate for good and all certain elements from his life.
Yes, it had become quite necessary that Max should marry.

III

Max was back again in his proper quarters, and the Queen had been to pay
him a visit of motherly condolence. She, too, was set upon eliminating
from his life those things which ought not to be in it; and finding him
still rather feeble from the blow that had fallen on him, and with a
head still bandaged, she thought it a seasonable opportunity to press
him in the way he should go. But she was not one of those who have any
taste for probing into young men's lives; she had an instinctive feeling
that such a line of ethical exploration lay entirely beyond her; and so
when she approached the subject her touch was only upon the surface.

"Max, my dear," she said fondly, "I do wish you would marry."

Max smiled at her with filial indulgence, and then, perceiving that
there might be entertainment in a conversation well packed with double
meanings, he fell in with her suggestion.

"I wish I could