sked."

"Had it been?"

"I could not have given it."

"That I think," said the Prince, "would have been the perfectly correct
attitude until such time as the King gave his. It is for that we have
been waiting; had it not been so I should have come to you earlier."

"Early or late, my answer to your Highness would always be the same."

"May I ask upon what grounds?"

"I would ask, sir, in return, upon what grounds is it suitable that you
should marry my daughter?"

"It so happens," replied Max, "that I am in love with her."

"What precisely, sir, to your mind does the phrase 'being in love'
convey?"

The Prince saw that the tussle was coming; he gathered his thoughts
together, then said, "An intense personal desire to endow a certain
woman with motherhood."

The Archbishop flushed: sharp enmity showed itself in his eyes; he made
a gesture of repulsion.

"Ah!" cried Max, "does that shock the Church?"

The challenge went unanswered; instead came question.

"Have you not had this desire before--in other directions?"

"Never!" exclaimed Max. "No, never!"

The Archbishop eyed him keenly. "You have had experience."

"I have lived my life openly," said the Prince.

"I was aware of that," returned his Grace. "Need I trouble your Highness
with any further grounds for my refusal? Not with my consent shall my
daughter marry a libertine."

"Great Judge of Heaven!" cried Max, springing to his feet. "Hark to this
old man!"

"Don't shout," said the Archbishop; "He hears you."

Max's scorn dropped back like a rocket to earth.

"Yes," he retorted, "no doubt! The question is, are you capable of
hearing Him?"

"I am always ready to be instructed," replied his Grace sarcastically.

"I must remind you," said the Prince, "that as a Doctor of Divinity I
have some claim. Yes," he went on in answer to the Archbishop's look of
astonishment, "though you have forgotten the circumstance, you yourself
dubbed me Theologian by hitting me over the head with a Greek
Testament."

The Archbishop accepted the reminiscence.

"In that case," said he, "I bow to your Highness's authority."

"Yes: you were a shepherd of that fold, yet you let me in? I was the
clever one of my family; and the title was given me when, with three
lives standing between, there was little likelihood of my becoming Head
of the Church. Was I to wear it, then, as an ornament, or as an amulet
to guide me into right doctrine? Whatever faith I still hold,