King John of Jingalo

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It was as direct a challenge of the royal will as one minister could
well make in the presence of others; never before had a difference of
opinion stood out so plainly for immediate decision under the eyes of a
whole Cabinet.

The King heard and understood: it was a crucial moment in the exercise
of his partially recovered authority; twenty pair of eyes were looking
at him, curiously intent, one pair benevolently anxious. The Prime
Minister was fingering his brief, ready to go on with the interrupted
disquisition; he even looked surreptitiously at his watch to indicate
that time pressed.

That little touch of covert insolence was sufficient; by a sort of
instinct the incalculable values of heredity, training, and position
asserted themselves. The King's lips parted in the shy nervous smile
which charmed every one. "Mr. Prime Minister," he said, "I am perfectly
willing to meet you at any future time you may like to name." He took up
the agenda paper as he spoke and turned to the Minister of the Interior.
"The Home Secretary," said his Majesty, "will now read his report."

Before they knew where they were the Council had passed on to its
accustomed routine.

III

Nobody looked at the Prime Minister's face just then; for the moment he
had been beaten, though the person who appeared least aware of it was
the King.

But, of course, it was for the moment only. And when at a later hour of
the day, with mind made resolute, the Prime Minister sought his promised
interview, the monarch was no longer at an advantage. Dialectically he
could not meet and match his opponent, and he had no longer that subtle
advantage which presidency at a board of ministers confers. Speaking as
man to man the head of the Government did not feel bound to observe that
tradition of half-servile approach which in the hearing of others
fetters the mouths of ministers.

The Jubilee celebrations were now over, the Parliamentary vacation
approached; and what before had been mere talk and threat could now be
put into instant action. And so when he had given the King his run, and
listened to the royal obstinacy in all its varying phrases of
repetition, contradiction, reproach, till it reached its final stage of
blank immobility, he formally tendered the Ministry's resignation.

The King sat and thought for a while, for now it was clear that one way
or the other he must make up his mind. All those strings of red tape,
which he had meant to tie with such dilatory cunning hung loose in his
grasp; to a Cabinet really set on resignation he could not apply them.
Just as his hands had seemed full of power they became empty again. He
knew that at the present moment no other ministry was possible, and that
a general election was more likely to accentuate than to solve his
difficulties; and so in sober chagrin he sat and thought, and the Prime
Minister (as he noticed) was so sure of his power that he did not even
trouble to watch the process of the royal hesitation resolving itself.

When after an appreciable time the King spoke he seemed to have arrived
nowhere.

"This is the fifth time," he said, "that you have offered me
resignation: and you know that I am still unable to accept it."

The Prime Minister bowed his head; he knew it very well, there was no
need for words.

"And you know that I am still entirely unconvinced."

"For that," said the minister, "I must take blame; since it shows that
my advocacy in so strong a case has been very imperfect."

"Oh, not at all," said the King. "I think you have shown even more than
your accustomed ability."

"That is a compliment which--if it may be permitted--I can certainly
return to your Majesty."

"I have felt very strongly upon this matter," said the King.

"We all do, sir--one way or the other. With great questions that is
inevitable."

"You admit it is a great question?"

"I should never have so troubled your Majesty were it a small one."

The King's thoughts shifted.

"What a pity it is," said he, "that I and my ministers have never been
friends."

"Have not loyal service and humble duty some claim to be so regarded?"
inquired the Prime Minister. But the King let this official veneer of
the facts pass unregarded.

"It would have helped things," he went on. "As it is, when I differ from
my ministers I am all alone. It is in moments of difficulty like this
that the head of the State realizes his weakness."

"There again, sir, you do yourself an injustice."

"Ah, that is easily said. But what does my power amount to when all is
done? Perhaps at the cost of constant friction with my ministers I have
been able to delay things for a while--given the country more time to
make up its mind; but then, unfortunately, it was thinking of other
things, and I myself provided the counter attraction. What I was trying
to do in one way I was rendering of no effect in another; all that I
intended politically has been swamped in ceremony."

"Your Majesty was never more popular than to-day," observed the Prime
Minister. "That in itself is a power."

The King paused to consider; then he said, "If I am prepared eventually
to give way, what time of grace can you allow me?"

"We must have our bill ready for the winter session, sir."

"Will you allow me till then?"

"If I may know what is in your Majesty's mind."

"What is in my mind is that the country should know what it is about.
This bill has not yet been seen; by the public nothing is known of it.
Well, that is what I ask: put it before the country, let the terms of it
be clearly stated, and if, when we come to the winter session, you are
still determined that it must form part of your program, then,"--the
King drew himself up and took a breath--"then I will no longer stand in
your way."

The Prime Minister bowed low to conceal his proud sense of triumph.

"I have your Majesty's word for that?"

"To-day is the 27th," said the King, "you can claim the fulfilment of
that promise in four months' time."

"And till then?"

"Till then," said the King slowly, "this question is not again to come
before Council. I hold to my point that its introduction without my
express consent was unconstitutional, and to maintain the Constitution I
am bound by oath."

The Prime Minister yielded the point readily, seeing in it the effort of
dull obstinacy to score a nominal triumph. "There is, however, the
accompanying condition," said he, "necessary for the success of our
scheme; and to that I must once more refer. In order to pass our bill we
shall need the consecration of at least fifty new Bishops, nominated by
the Government; to that, also, your Majesty has hitherto been opposed."

"Oh, you mean the Free Churchmen?" queried the King. "Ah, yes, and the
Archimandrite."

"In that matter," replied the Prime Minister, "I have some reason to
believe that the Bishops will eventually give way."

The King felt himself a little more alone. "Yes," he said, "I daresay
they will; I shouldn't wonder at all."

"Then over that, too, I may look for your Majesty's consent?"

The King repeated his former word. "I shall not stand in your way," he
said; and again the Prime Minister bowed low.

"I have to thank your Majesty for relieving me of a great difficulty."

"Oh, no, why should you? You have not persuaded me in the least; you
have merely forced me to a certain course, in which I still cannot
pretend that I agree."

"I shall always recognize that your Majesty has acted on the highest
motives, both in opposing and in ceasing to oppose."

"I shall ask you to remember that," said the King.

"There shall never be any misunderstanding on my part," replied the
minister; and applying a palm to the hand graciously extended as though
its mere touch had power to heal, he took his leave, and the fateful
audience was over.

For a long time after, the King stood looking at the door out of which
he had gone.

"I think there has been a misunderstanding, though," he said to himself,
with a slow, faint smile, "and I don't think it is mine----" He paused.
"Perhaps, though, I had better write down exactly what I said." And
going to his desk he made there and then a careful memorandum of his
words.

He read them over, and once again he smiled. He was still quite
contented with what he had done. "And I wonder," he said to himself,
"what Max would say if he knew?"

There was a great surprise waiting for Max, and well might the King
wonder what that interesting young man would make of it. Yes, it was
just as well that Max should not know anything about it beforehand; Max
might run away.

CHAPTER XI

A ROYAL COMMISSION

I

While the King and the Prime Minister had thus been giving each other
shocks of a somewhat unpleasant character, Prince Max had received a far
pleasanter one. Only a week after the holding of the King's court the
lady of his dreams had written asking for an interview.

The letter was not dated from the Archbishop's palace, but from the Home
of the Little Lay-Sisters; and it was thither that he repaired, in order
to forestall her humble yet amazing offer to wait upon him.

In the bare, conventual parlor, with high walls that echoed resoundingly
and boards that smelt of soap, they met once more face to face and
alone. She courtesied low, addressed him formally as "sir," and thanked
him with due deference for coming; otherwise there was no change in her
demeanor. The flat-frilled cap showed within its border a delicate
ripple of hair, and above the fair breastplate of linen the face shone
with tender warmth like a white rose resting upon snow; and as her lips
moved in speech he re-encountered with a fervor of delight that curious
quality of look which had ever haunted his dreams--a communicativeness
not limited to words. Though it remained still her whole face spoke to
him; lips and eyes made music together--a harmony of two senses in
alliance, as into morning mist comes the yet unrisen light and the
hidden singing of birds.

And yet all the while she was but saying quite ordinary things, making
brief the embarrassment of this their first meeting since their relative
positions had become explained.

"I have taken you at your word, sir," she began. "When we last met you
asked if you could not be useful. Now you can."

"Your remembrance makes me grateful," said the Prince.

"Perhaps I ought not to be so confident," she went on, "since the idea
is only my own. It came from something I heard my father saying; and as
he strongly disapproves of women taking part in politics it was no use
saying anything to him."

"Oh, politics?" That explanation rather surprised him.

"Sometimes--just now and then," explained Sister Jenifer, "politics do
touch social needs: and to their detriment."

"My acquaintance with politics," answered the Prince, "is
very--Chimerical," he added after a pause, pleased to have found the
term.

"Yes," she smiled, "I have heard you. You are full of happy ideas, many
of them somewhat contradictory; but you have not yet fallen into any
groove. To you freedom means rebellion; you represent no vested
interest."

"Is that my certificate of character?"

"I had not finished," she said. "I was keeping the best to the last. You
have a great position and an open mind."

"An important combination, you think?"

"An unusual one."

"And so you have an unusual proposition to make to me?"

"Yes, I suppose you will think so. There is a brand I want plucked from
the burning--a Royal Commission saved from becoming merely official and
useless."

"What is its subject?"

"All this!"--she made an inclusive gesture--"slums, the conditions of
sweated labor, the daily material which we have to work on."

"About which you have taught me that I know really nothing."

"You said you were anxious to learn. At least half of that Commission
will be anxious not to learn--or not to let others."

"Then you ought to be on it."

"No woman is on it."

"You wish them to be?"

She threw out her hands. "What would be the use? Their voices would have
no weight."

"Whose would?"

"Yours," she said; and, eyeing him full, stopped dead.

"You wish me to go upon that Commission?" cried Prince Max.

"Yes."

"In spite of all my ignorance?"

"The sittings do not begin till late autumn; between now and then you
could get more actual knowledge--brought home and made visible to you, I
mean--than most of those who will form its majority."

"Then you think I could be of use?"

She looked at him, silent for a moment. "I think you have a mind capable
of taking fire, when it learns the facts."

"Facts only deaden some people," said he.

"Yes; that is what crushes us here. We have such mountains of facts to
deal with."

"And you want fire to come down from those mountains and consume me?"

She nodded prophetically.

"I know you wouldn't run away."

"I am trying to feel the call," said Max a little skeptically. And in
truth he was of divided mind, not because he had any doubt of his
ability, but because the temptation to insincerity was so strong. This
would give him the very opportunity he sought--through a vale of misery
he beheld the way to his own Promised Land; but was it fair that he
should take advantage of it without a heart of pity and conviction? This
Prince of ours rather prided himself on his conscientious scruples.

"Will you tell me from the beginning," he said at last, "what put this
thought into your mind? I seem to be getting it only by fragments."

"Three days ago," she answered, "I heard my father talking with others
of the projected Commission. They were dissatisfied at the Church not
being sufficiently represented--so insufficiently, indeed, that they
took it as an intentional slight, part of the Government's policy for
depriving the Bishops of all standing. It was held that further
representation was imperative."

"What?" exclaimed Max; "am I to represent the Bishops, then?"

She shook her head, laughing. "Oh, no!" she answered. "They found some
one very much better for themselves. That is the really immediate
danger. They are afraid that the Commission as it stands will issue
findings of a one-sided and party character, and that any minority
report, unless it obtained the chairman's signature, would have no
weight. Their main hope, therefore, is to secure a chairman of high
standing on whose help they can rely, and it is thought that the
Government could not oppose the nomination of a member of the Royal
Family. It would appeal to popular sentiment; and subject to his
Majesty's assent, his Royal Highness the Duke of Nostrum has expressed
his willingness to serve."

Max had no great opinion of the collaterals of his grandfather--this one
least of all. "Oh, ye Heavens!" he exclaimed. "For what use these bones
of my ancestors? Why, with him to direct its deliberations, the
Commission will run on into the next century, and its report be only
applicable to the last!" Then, as he took stock of the situation, "And
are you expecting me to head the minority report instead of him?" he
inquired.

"It is not their report I am concerned about," she answered, "and for
party I care little; it is the majority I fear. On paper the Commission
looks as if it meant business; Church and property have been squeezed
into one small corner, but the trade-interest is very strong; it is
there in concealed ways which outsiders cannot recognize, for even over
our public and medical departments--and still more in the press--it has
now got control. I can give you instance after instance of men known as
philanthropists whose riches come from sweated labor, and whose
munificent charities form not one tithe of their inhuman profits drained
from the lives of the very poorest. Some of them, great advertisers, are
to sit on this Commission, and all the press, irrespective of party,
will praise their appointment; while to defend their interests others
will be attacked. The Government may be quite ready as a temporary
expedient to make scapegoats of the property-owners, but it is not so
ready to antagonize trade. I believe, sir, that on this Commission the
real source of evil will never be traced; we shall hear of the grinding
middleman and the rack-renter, but nothing dangerous to these magnates,
or to the trade-system itself--unless----" She paused, and left silence
to carry her message.

"Unless," supplemented Max, "some one thoroughly indiscreet occupies the
chair?"

"Somebody," she replied, "whose minority report of one would attract all
the attention it deserved."

"Oh, you think----?" His mind sparkled at the prospect: to be in a
minority of one had a peculiar fascination for him.

"Yes, I think it may come to that," she said, "if you will honestly open
your eyes."

"Then you cannot promise me the support of the Church?"

She shook her head as though that were the last thing possible.

"I am to be all alone?" His tone invited commiseration, while his brain
soared with the dreams of a hashish-eater.

"I think about three may be with you, not more," she said, letting him
down to earth again.

"Why are you so confident about me?"

Her gentle gray eyes met his with friendly understanding.

"When I found out who you were," she said, "I saw"--then she
hesitated--"I saw that you had the rare gift of doing naturally what one
would never expect."

"In what way?"

"To begin with, in coming here at all. And then you did things which, I
imagine, no prince ever did before, and did them quite easily--'for
fun,' I suppose you would say. Well, if you could do all that for fun,
what might you not do when you became serious? A man who doesn't mind
being laughed at--whatever his position--is very rare."

"Ah!" cried Max, "but now you are giving me more credit than I deserve.
You set me to do ridiculous things for you--ridiculous, I mean, in one
dressed as I was for fashion and not for use--I was aware of it; but
nobody was aware of me. When I come here into these poor streets, I am
so unexpected that nobody recognizes me. If they thought that they did,
they would not believe their eyes. In that alone there is a sense of
enlargement and liberty which those who have not to live in our position
can hardly realize. It was like holiday; I felt as though I had been let
loose."

"And so became more yourself?"

"I cannot say; but I was happy while I was here. Why did you send me
away?"

"For the same reason that I now ask you to come back. I wanted you to be
of use--independently."

"Yet here I am dependent upon you again."

"No; you have this in your own hands: it is your position."

"That secures the chairmanship? But am I at all likely to be accepted?"

"From what I hear, nobody suspects you of taking any great interest in
the life of the poor. They have therefore no reason to be afraid of
you."

"I see," said Max. "As a figure-head chairman I might even be valuable."

"Very, I have no doubt."

"Part of the game?"

"Royalty and Trade are supposed to be natural allies," remarked Sister
Jenifer.

Max was startled at her discernment. "Oh, but that is true!" he cried.
"How wonderful, then, that you should be able to trust me at all."

This set her smiling. "I had the advantage to begin with of not knowing
who you were."

"And that gave you a start."

"No, finding you out gave me the start."

"You certainly have not lost time."

"That I cannot say, till I have your answer." There was no temporizing
here.

Max thought for a while, then drew breath and spoke. "I want you quite
to understand," he said, "that if I take up this work it will be very
largely for a personal reason. I daresay I shall, as you say, 'take
fire' when I know more about it; but at present I am not so moved.
Commissions do not attract me; and what I undertake I shall do solely on
faith--faith in you. Are you content that it should be so?"

"For a beginning, yes."

"Very well; something else follows. I shall need you for my guide."

"I am always here at certain hours," she said. "But there are others who
know far more than I."

He let that point go unregarded.

"Then I may come to you for help?"

"Always, if really you need it."

"My needs shall be as real as I can make them," said Max. "How am I to
begin?"

She named one or two books. "If you follow up what you read there," she
said, "you will find most of it practically demonstrated in this
district alone. For instance, we have a strike on just now among our
tailors and shirt-makers; the men have made the women come out with
them; they did not want to--women can exist under conditions where men
cannot. Go and mix with them, be among them for hours, attend their
street-corner meetings; you will hardly hear two ideas of any practical
value, but you will get many. It isn't theory that is wanted,--it is
that the life which thousands are living should be known and realized.
When the eye has seen, the heart follows. All we really want is
brotherhood; but how are we to bring it about?"

"From that I am furthest away of all," said Prince Max.

"No, no," she cried; "that is the great mistake! If kings are not the
very symbol of our community then they have no value left. May I tell
you two of the most kingly things I ever heard done in the present day?
The one was by the old King of Montenegro, the smallest of the Balkan
States. He found that his chief gentry were becoming lazy, too proud to
put their hands to labor--making idleness a class distinction. He sat
down in the courtyard of his palace and began to make shoes, and went on
making them daily while he held his Court and administered justice; and
so the new folly died."

"And the other?" inquired the Prince.

"It may seem far-fetched in the present connection," said she, "yet as
an expression of the real kingly instinct it has all that I mean. Some
years ago the heir to the English throne--the one who died young--went
out to India. One day he was holding a durbar of Indian chiefs, and they
with their retinues stood drawn up in parade ready to offer homage as he
passed along their ranks. Opposite was a great crowd of natives watching
the spectacle, and at a certain point in that crowd stood, as a mere
onlooker, one whom Britain had defeated and driven into exile, the old
Ameer of Afghanistan. Just before he rode down the Prince heard of it,
and had the man pointed out to him; and when he came there he wheeled
his horse about and gave the full royal salute. And through all that
great multitude went a thrill because the kingly thing had been done,
and all had seen it."

Tears glistened in her eyes as she spoke. "He was rather a dull young
man," she went on, "so one has been told, but that was better than
brains, for that was the touch of human kindness done in the grand
manner which royalty makes possible, and ought to make natural--done
with a pride which has its place beside the humility of St. Francis."

"Well, well," said Max, "put me in touch then, and I will see what I can
do. But I haven't the grand manner, you know."

II

The King was considering the request of his revered uncle, the Duke of
Nostrum, to preside over the Commission on slums, when Max came, asking
also to be made useful.

"What, you too?" cried his Majesty; "isn't one of us enough?"

"Quite," said Max. "I want to be that one."

"What are your qualifications?"

"Willingness," said Max, "a brain capable of taking fire at facts, a
great position, and an open and rebellious mind. I am quoting from
authority; I was given my certificate yesterday."

To his Majesty this was merely the voice of Max at his flightiest.
"Well," he said, "your Uncle Nostrum happens to have come first."

"Do you always grant first applications?"

"He has had much more experience."

"Of slums?" inquired Max.

"Of commissions, and all that sort of thing. He has sat on them."

"So he has--the elephant! And they have died the death."

"He works," said the King, "and you don't! You only talk."

"I only talk!" cried the injured Max; his voice went up to Heaven
appealing against parental injustice. "Has he ever in his life been down
into the slums and spent whole days there, as I have? Has he carried
buckets for washing-sisters of charity, as I have; and borne upon his
back the beds of the dying, as I have?"

"You?" cried the King with incredulity.

"I do not publish these things upon the housetops," said Max, "but in
the secrecy of your chamber and in strict confidence I tell you that
they are true. And while I, for many anxious weeks, have been toiling to
qualify for this post, he, this Nostrum, this patent-drug from our royal
medicine-chest, this soporific sedative----"

"Max, Max!" reproved his father.

"He rushes in where an angel has feared to tread, and filches from me
my reward!"

"My dear boy, are you serious?" cried the King.

"I was never more serious in my life, father," replied his son. "But in
order to arrest your attention I have to be theatrical. Now if you will
really believe what I am going to say I will drop play-acting. I have,
as I tell you, been down into our slum districts, I have been among the
slum workers, means have been offered me for studying these problems at
first hand, and I am prepared,--from this week on when Parliament rises,
and the metropolis empties itself of pleasure, and you have gone sadly
to your annual cure at Bad-as-Bad,--I am prepared to devote the whole of
my time and energy to qualifying for this post; and with Heaven helping
me, I will make it the most astonishing and effective Royal Commission
that ever sat down believing itself on cushions to find that it was on a
hornets' nest."

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