r good Asander, who had only to lift up his
little finger, was so cold and positively forbidding, that I once
came upon the poor lady crying her eyes out in a passion of mortified
feeling.

_1st Court._ Ay, she was from this outlandish Cherson, was not she?
Aphrodite was a Greek woman also, remember.

_2nd Court._ So she was. I had quite forgotten where the lady came
from. Well, if she is there now, and cannot get her Prince, and would
like a gay, tolerably well-favoured young fellow for a lover, I
suppose she need go no further than the present company.

_Meg._ My lords, I pray you leave these frivolities, and let us come
to serious matters. Think, I beg you, in what a painful position I am
placed. I am to go, without proper notice, as Master of the
Ceremonies of the Court of Bosphorus, to conduct an important
Court-ceremonial with a pack of scurvy knaves, who, I will be bound,
hardly know the difference between an Illustrious and a Respectable,
or a Respectable and an Honourable. I must do my best to arrange all
decently and in order, and as near as may be to the Imperial model,
and all these matters I have to devise on shipboard, tossed about on
that villanous Euxine, with a smell of pitch everywhere, and
sea-sickness in my stomach. And when I get to Cherson, if ever I do
get there alive, I have not the faintest idea whom I am to consult
with--whether there is a Count of the Palace or anybody, in fact. I
dare say there is nobody; I am sure there is nobody. A marriage of
the heir apparent is a very serious affair, let me tell you. What a
comfort it is that I have got the last edition of that precious work
of the divine Theodosius on Dignities! If it were not for that, I
should go mad.

_1st Court._ My good Megacles, I warn you the Prince cares as little
for etiquette as he does for love-making.

_Meg._ Very likely, and that makes my position so difficult. Just
reflect for a moment. When we go ashore at Cherson, I suppose we
shall be received by the authorities?

_2nd Court._ Surely, good Megacles.

_Meg._ Then, how many steps should Prince Asander take to meet his
father-in-law Lamachus--eh? And how many steps should Lamachus take?
You never gave the matter a thought? Of course not. And these are
questions to be settled on the spot, and scores like them.

_3rd Court._ I dare say it won't matter at all, or very little.

_Meg._ Matter very little, indeed! very little, forsooth! Why, in the
name of all the sa