[Enter Pehr--Grand Vizier and Royal Historian having entered just
before him. Ameer jumps up from the floor with the genealogical
chart; Royal Historian stands quietly and jots down in a book what
he hears.]

VIZIER. Will it please Your Highness to scan this ancestral chart,
which our--and the Kingdom's Ameer has made of Your Highness'
illustrious old family tree.

PEHR. My ancestral chart? I have never known of any relative but my
father, the old sexton.

VIZIER. [Pretends not to hear.] It begins with a great and glorious
name--Caliph Omar--

PEHR. Caliph Omar! What kind of fish is that?

VIZIER. [Sternly.] That is no fish. He was a great and honorable
ruler.

PEHR. Be that as it may, but I was born in wedlock and not between
satin sheets, good gentlemen!

VIZIER. It does not become a ruler to be selfish; be must in all
particulars sacrifice his personal interests and tastes for the
welfare of the people.

PEHR. Very good; but does the welfare of the people demand that I
shall be illegitimate?