the attempt; and here, in seeking with all his sympathies aroused to
provide for the widow and children, the King was finding himself
thwarted, and thwarted, too, on purely political grounds. Well, it
should be a test: he would not be thwarted. The Cabinet couldn't resign
on this; so he would do as he liked! And under the table, on a soft deep
carpet of velvet-pile he stuck his heels into the ground and felt very
determined.

And then he found that he must attend to something else, for the Prime
Minister was speaking, and now at last was speaking on a very important
matter.


IV

"Your Majesty," said the Prime Minister, "the Bishops are blocking all
our bills; the business of the country is at a standstill."

"Blocking?" queried the King; for he did know a little of contemporary
history at all events.

"Amending," corrected the Minister. "Amending on lines which we cannot
possibly accept."

"Some of them seemed to me quite excellent amendments," said the King.
"But, of course, I don't know."

"They express, sir, no doubt, a point of view--quite an estimable point
of view, if it were not a question of politics: they reflect, that is to
say, the mind of the ecclesiastical side of the Spiritual and Judicial