The Winslow mail., 1914-10-10

preside, and he intended to make his
presidency memorable. Reassured of
his eloquence, he considered the de
spondent and sulky Firmin for space.
"Firmin,' he said, you have ideal
lied kingship"
1T has been my dream. sir" said Fir
min sorrOwfully ''to serve"
"At the levers, Firmin," said the
king
"You are pleased to be unjust said
Firmin, deeply hurt
Il am pleased to be getting out of
it," said the king
"Oh, Firmin," be went on. "have
you no thought for me? Will you
never realize that | am not only flesh
and blood bat an imagination-with
its rights? I am a king in revolt
against that fetter they put upon my
head. l am a king awake. My rever-
end grandparents never in all their
august lives had a waking moment
| They loved the job that you, you ad
viSers, gave them. They never had
doubt of it. 1t was like giving doll
to woman who ought to have child
They delighted in professions and
opening things and being read ad
dresses to and visiting triplets and
nOnagenarianS and all that sort of
thing. Incredibly. They used to keep
albums of cuttings from all the illus
trated papers showing them at it, and
! if the press cutting parcels grew thin
| they We're worried. 1t was all that
ever worried them. But there is some
thing atavistic i'll me- l bark back to
unconstitutional monarchs. They chris
tened me too retrogressively, | think.
| wanted to get things DONE l was
bored. l might have fallen into vice
| most intelligent and energetic princes
debut the palace precautions were
unusually thorough | was brought up
in the purest court the world has ever
Seen-alertly pure. SO l read books,
| Firmin. and went about asking ques-
tiOns. The thing was bound to hap
! pen to one of US sooner or later. Per
haps, too, very likely I'm not vicious.
don't think l am
He reflected. NO." he said.
Firmin cleared his throat. "I don't
think you are, sir" he said. "You pre-
fer
He stopped short He had been go
ing to say talking" He substituted
ideas"
THAT world of royalty" the king
went on. ''In a little while no one
will understand it any more. 1t will
become a riddle
among other things, it was a world
of perpetual best clothes. Everything
| was in it's best clothes for US and
usually wearing bunting, with a cine
ma watching to see we took it proper
y. If you were king, Firmin, and
you go and look at regiment it in
stantly stops whatever it is doing.
changes into full uniform and presents
| arms. When my august parents went
in train the coal in the tender used to
| be Whitened. 1t did, Firmin, and if
coal had been white instead of black
| | have no doubt the authorities would
| have blackened it. That was the spirit
of our treatment. People were always
walking about with their faces to us.
One never saw anything in profile
One got an impression Of a world that
was insanely focused on ourselves.
And when l began to poke my little
questions into the lord chancellor and
the archbishop and all the rest of them
about what | should see if people turn
ed around the general effect | produced
was that wasn't by any means dis
playing the royal tact they had expect
ed of me-
He meditated for q time
"And yet you know there is some
thing in the kingship. Firmin. 1t stiff
ened up my august little grandfather;
it gave my grandmother a kind of
awkward dignity, even when she was
cross, and she was very often cross
They both had profound sense of re
sponsibility. My poor fathers health
was Wretched during his brief career.
Nobody outside the circle knows just
low he screwed himself up to things
My people expect it, he used to say of
this tiresome duty or that. Most of
IL was part of a bad tradition. but
there was nothing silly in the way he
set about them. The spirit of king
ship is a fine thing. Firmin. ! feel ii
ia my bones. | do not know what |
might not be if | were not a king |
could die for my people, Firmin, and
you couldn't. No, don't say you could
die for me because l know better.
Don't think | forget my kingshfp. Fir
min; don't imagine that am Il king. /
81 kingly king. by right divine. The |
fact that | am also a chattering young |
man makes not the slightest difference |
to that But the proper textbook for !
kings, Firmin, is none of the court |
memoirs and welt-politik books you !
would have me read; it is old Frasers
Golden Bough.' Have you read that,
Firmin?"
Firmin had.
'Those were the authentic kings. In
fhp end thpV yVnrn ont I'm and bit to