d quips. Shame upon you!

ECKHOF (_with a grateful glance to heaven, trying to conceal his joyful
excitement_).

An actor! Oh, I thank Your Majesty for this most gracious sentence.
Conrad Eckhof will endeavor to do honor to himself and his despised new
profession.

[_Goes out_.]

KING.

And as for you, my Lady Sonnsfeld, you may, the sooner the better, pack
up your belongings and be off to Dresden where my cousin, the Elector of
Saxony, has need of just such nymphs and graces for his court fireworks
and his ballets.

SONNSFELD (_going out, speaks aside_).

In his anger he chooses punishments that can only delight any person of
refinement. [_She goes out_.]

KING.

Wilhelmine!

WILHELMINE.

Your Majesty, what have I done that I am so unhappy as always to arouse
your displeasure?

KING.

You call me "Majesty" because you lack a daughter's heart for your
father. I have brought up my children in the good old German fashion; I
have tried to keep all French vanities and French follies far from their
childish hearts; on my throne I have tried to prove that Kings may set
an example to their subjects, an example of how the simplest honest
household may be ruled. Have I succeeded in this?

WILHELMINE.

You have punished us severely enough for our faults.

KING.

This wigmaker--who was to instruct you in all the ambiguities of the
French language--

WILHELMINE.

He was not a wigmaker.

KING. He was.

WILHELMINE.

Well, if he was, then you dislike him simply because you are so fond of
your horrid pigtail.

KING.

The pigtail is a man's best adornment. In that braided hair lies
concentrated power. A pigtail is not a wild fluttering mass of disorder
about one's head--the seat of the human soul--such as our Hottentot
dandies of today show in their long untidy hair. It expresses, instead,
a simple, pious and well-brushed order, entwined obedience, falling
gently down over the shoulders, fit symbol for a Christian gentleman.
But I am tired of this eternal quarreling with you. This present arrest
shall be the last proof of my fatherly affection. You will soon be free
and mistress of your own actions. I announce herewith that you will
shortly be able to come and go at your own discretion.

WILHELMINE.

Father!

KING.

Is that tone sincere?

WILHELMINE.

It comes from a heart that will never cease to revere the best of men.

KING.

Then you realize that I desire only your happiness? Yes, W