King John of Jingalo by Laurence Housman
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KING JOHN OF JINGALO
THE STORY OF A MONARCH IN DIFFICULTIES
BY LAURENCE HOUSMAN
NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1912
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. A Domestic Interior
II. Accidents Will Happen
III. Wild Oats and Widows' Weeds
IV. Popular Monarchy
V. Church and State
VI. Of Things not Expected
VII. The Old Order
VIII. Pace-making in Politics
IX. The New Endymion
X. King and Council
XI. A Royal Commission
XII. An Arrival and a Departure
XIII. A Promissory Note
XIV. Heads or Tails
XV. A Deed Without a Name
XVI. Concealment and Discovery
XVII. The Incredible Thing Happens
XVIII. The King's Night Out
XIX. The Spiritual Power
XX. The Thorn and the Flesh
XXI. Night-light
XXII. A Man of Business
XXIII. "Call Me Jack"
XXIV. The Voice of Thanksgiving
KING JOHN OF JINGALO
CHAPTER I
A DOMESTIC INTERIOR
I
The King of Jingalo had just finished breakfast in the seclusion of the royal private apartments. Turning away from the pleasantly deranged board he took up one of the morning newspapers which lay neatly folded upon a small gilt-legged table beside him. Then he looked at his watch.
This action was characteristic of his Majesty: doing one thing always reminded him that presently he would have to be doing another. Conscientious to a fault, he led a harassed and over-occupied life, which was not the less wearisome in its routine because no clear results ever presented themselves within his own range of vision. By an unkind stroke of fortune he had been called to the rule of a kingdom that had grown restive under the weight of too much tradition; and constitutionally he was unable to let it alone. So must he now remind himself in the hour of his privacy how all too fleeting were its moments, and how soon he would have to project himself elsewhere.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: King John of Jingalo by Laurence Housman
- 2: I have not yet looked at my diary
- 3: A wistful note of interrogation
- 4: He had been elaborately instructed
- 5: To go down to the Humanitarian Army's soup kitchen
- 6: Full skirts of their grandmothers
- 7: The Queen not anxious or perturbed about anything
- 8: Much more than a penny a liner
- 9: Charlotte must get to like foreigners
- 10: Symbol and safeguard of the popular will
- 11: Before his father came to the throne
- 12: In a word it was a steeplejack
- 13: Find me the 'ST' volume of the Encyclopedia Appendica
- 14: The Comptroller of his Majesty's household
- 15: The Comptroller General bowed assent
- 16: The King was finding himself thwarted
- 17: The Juridical half of the Chamber
- 18: Said the Prime Minister suavely
- 19: The Minister of the Interior simply could not allow it
- 20: His essential superfluity were all the same
- 21: Undoubtedly something had happened
- 22: As a rule it was the Comptroller who
- 23: He had allowed constitutional usage
- 24: Replied the Comptroller General
- 25: Especially in intellectual matters
- 26: But Max waived any decisive pronouncement
- 27: While my associates were screwing up the Dean
- 28: You would have me exemplary in a week
- 29: If monarchy would only adopt it as its motto
- 30: There was no instinctive loyalty
- 31: The football only knows that it has been kicked
- 32: And Princess Charlotte stood looking after him
- 33: At opposite ends of the long corridor
- 34: Don't give it to Charlotte herself
- 35: Max will find somebody for himself
- 36: Royalty must not barter itself away
- 37: Then royalty is no longer in the running
- 38: But anon her awful jubilant voice
- 39: And the Prime Minister and the Archbishop
- 40: When the Prime Minister arrived his Grace the Primate
- 41: The vacancy occurred without any undue delay
- 42: She is neither a traveling menagerie
- 43: Cried the Archbishop passionately
- 44: The Archbishop rose to his feet
- 45: It is they who invoke us from an imperishable past
- 46: And there are the Laity so stupid
- 47: If not the distribution of patronage
- 48: And then on the score of it being non contentious
- 49: Why do you disapprove of vivisection
- 50: But now and again mamma gives me an anesthetic
- 51: There'll be headlines about that
- 52: Present himself at the Court of Jingalo
- 53: And it was the Comptroller General himself who selected it
- 54: How possibly can it be indecent
- 55: Had Brasshay only caught him then
- 56: The Lord Functionary raised his pale eyebrows
- 57: Corrected the Lord Functionary
- 58: And Jingalese drama has risen and shaken itself in wrath
- 59: Down flourished the conductor's baton in a crash of chords
- 60: Whispered Max in the parental ear
- 61: He did not like thus to win popularity by accident
- 62: Lamented the Comptroller General
- 63: The Charter of the Holy Thorn has not gone
- 64: By allowing a towel to each foot and twelve cakes of soap
- 65: The Prime Minister had really been right
- 66: And in putting on its peace paint for the Jubilee
- 67: Returned the minister cautiously
- 68: I think the pace is about right
- 69: If it is solved in another way so that the pace slackens
- 70: And John of Jingalo sat down to read the marked passages
- 71: No fresh institution of any rank
- 72: Had been departmentalized all his life
- 73: Not for nothing was John of Jingalo the son of his father
- 74: They had met less than half a dozen times
- 75: That person who called himself Prince Max
- 76: And greatly would Max have been surprised
- 77: The heart of Max was wonderfully relieved gladdened also
- 78: Then Max was tempted to show off
- 79: That you need a religion in order to become a freeholder
- 80: 'We are all sweated workers here
- 81: Others were trying to worry him
- 82: His Grace the Archbishop of Ebury
- 83: Max frankly recognized his superior
- 84: He was more puzzled still when
- 85: Interrupted the Prime Minister
- 86: The Prime Minister sat down again
- 87: Before any more of them become obsolete
- 88: The Prime Minister was fingering his brief
- 89: The Prime Minister bowed his head
- 90: The Prime Minister yielded the point readily
- 91: There was a great surprise waiting for Max
- 92: You wish me to go upon that Commission
- 93: The Commission will run on into the next century
- 94: Max was startled at her discernment
- 95: And at a certain point in that crowd stood
- 96: Your Uncle Nostrum happens to have come first
- 97: You had better dress like a Socialist
- 98: But they entirely depend upon it
- 99: And so having done with digression
- 100: He spoke indignantly of it to Sister Jenifer
- 101: Do not such exaggerations condemn it
- 102: But not not abject submission
- 103: Rose in Schnapps Wasser territory
- 104: She wanted Charlotte to enjoy herself
- 105: Said a chuckling old Margravine
- 106: Nor sat in the balcony to listen to the band
- 107: Princess Charlotte tore the paper into little pieces
- 108: Away from her mother at the furthest window stood Charlotte
- 109: Charlotte wriggled with impatience
- 110: Charlotte was quite ready to repeat it
- 111: But the other extra did not show
- 112: Excusing himself to the Prince he opened it
- 113: Said Charlotte with a certain air of discretion
- 114: Here the Comptroller assumed an air of the utmost discretion
- 115: All the rest is advertisement and high class journalism
- 116: Is not charlatans an extreme term
- 117: Max smiled at her with filial indulgence
- 118: Why not see the Archbishop about it
- 119: And Max pointed to the scar upon his head
- 120: Conditionally upon your consent
- 121: He let Max have his way or the way to it
- 122: Max touched his breast pocket and smiled
- 123: For all know that in this long bout with titular kingship
- 124: Under the Constitution of the said Realm of Jingalo
- 125: When does this abdication take effect
- 126: Said the Prime Minister tetchily
- 127: I will close Parliament for you
- 128: The Prime Minister's face became drawn with passion
- 129: For being once harnessed to the royal coach
- 130: There's always four extras here
- 131: He was reckoned too risky after that
- 132: So you needn't think about measles
- 133: If you go putting bombs into my head
- 134: Out through the gates sallied the piebald ponies
- 135: The whole House of Laity there assembled broke into cheers
- 136: The Prime Minister pursed his lips and elaborately paused
- 137: And for that reason the Women Chartists did
- 138: Charlotte neither wrote nor telegraphed
- 139: Charlotte was impulsive and did indiscreet things
- 140: When circumstances forestalled us
- 141: But red tape was still his cherished possession
- 142: The Prime Minister had been quite right
- 143: In a tone of very urgent apology
- 144: Said the Prime Minister gravely
- 145: A most lamentable blunder committed by the police
- 146: In case Charlotte should refuse to believe the official word
- 147: To have their grievances looked into
- 148: Papa if that petition came to you
- 149: I only wanted it to be anonymous
- 150: To the King's last remark Max merely replied At present
- 151: Did he throw that bomb at himself
- 152: The whiffle and hoot of motor cars
- 153: He glanced up at the palace facade
- 154: A small ragged urchin asked him the time
- 155: Lost momentarily to view in the surging mass of men
- 156: The roaring multitude swallowed him
- 157: Three cheers for the Women's Charter
- 158: Said the sergeant clerk sharply
- 159: The inspector smiled apologetically
- 160: Was this the way your Majesty came out
- 161: And the inspector still accompanied him
- 162: Whether these women had truly a grievance
- 163: And what if some fine day those insects
- 164: And the Prime Minister listened
- 165: When I sent in the message of my abdication
- 166: Abdication after that became impossible
- 167: That the Archbishop himself will forbid it
- 168: The Prime Minister was puzzled
- 169: Said the Prime Minister in a changed tone
- 170: I am engaged to marry Prince Max
- 171: This indiscretion on the part of the Prince
- 172: Of course it was the Church of Jingalo that he meant
- 173: He spoke of things which he knew
- 174: The Archbishop was extremely well informed
- 175: The Archbishop resigned himself to what he could not avoid
- 176: Replied the Archbishop with stately formality
- 177: The Archbishop accepted the reminiscence
- 178: Before the date of my investiture
- 179: You spoke of chivalry and loyalty
- 180: I have had illicit connection with one woman
- 181: You too must be anatomical in your researches
- 182: The Archbishop of Ebury bowed his head
- 183: It is funny that you should like drums
- 184: While Charlotte danced nearly the whole evening
- 185: I needn't have troubled your Majesty
- 186: The bomb that had that number on it
- 187: I've got no proof so it's not the same thing
- 188: He said to the Prince of Schnapps Wasser
- 189: Murmured the King again as he continued to handle the shards
- 190: It shall be as your Majesty wishes
- 191: But of the Premier he was now quite sure
- 192: With you I no longer intend peace
- 193: Look at the figures and lettering on the shard
- 194: Can you think music without ever hearing it
- 195: With scaly convolutions elaborately tattooed
- 196: Then I shall not be afraid of loneliness any more
- 197: I have ten thousand of them drilled already
- 198: Whether you would be shocked at least
- 199: That those Women Chartists were right
- 200: The practical Fritz let his romantic side appear again
- 201: Where are they getting funds from abroad
- 202: That a syndicalist subsidy to Labor of L50
- 203: How should we know that they were Englishmen
- 204: Syndicalism was merely a showing of the way
- 205: At a given signal There the Prime Minister
- 206: And nobly tendered it certainly was
- 207: All these things Jingalo was told by its newspapers
- 208: IIThe King's recovery was the event of the new year
- 209: What a wonderful country is the country of Jingalo