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Show jS Writer"? M$HgiP BIRMINGHAM WNII Bervlco. kept on trying. I told every one I met there'd been a mistake, that I wasn't the man they took me for; but they wouldn't believe me." "So at last you made up your mind to take the goods the gods provided, a princess and a throne?" "Well, of course, there was Calypso," Calyp-so," said Tommy. "I didn't really think at first that I had much chance of getting her, marrying her, I mean. Well, I told you how I was feeling about her." "Yes. I understand that. But all the same what I'm trying to get at is this : what did you think was happening? How did you explain It all to yourself? Did you try to think it out?" "I thought it out all that night." said Tommy, "at least as long as I stayed awake. I dare say I was awake for as much as an hour or an hour and a half after I got into bed, and I was thinking hard all the time, partly about Culypso, of course. But" "Mostly atiout Calypso, I expect." "Well, you may say mostly," said Tommy. "Still, I did think about the others, Caslmir and the king, and about the absurd way they were going go-ing on, insisting that I was some one I wasn't and all that." "And what conclusion did you come to? How did you explain It to your-, self?" "It sounds rather absurd," said Tommy, "and I dare say you'll think me a fool. But you know the way that fellow Casimir keeps on quoting quot-ing Shakespeare?" "I have heard him do It and marveled." mar-veled." "Evidently he'd read a lot of Shakespeare," said Tommy, "and admired ad-mired him and all that." "These mid-European peoples," I said, "all admire Shakespeare lm- "Of course, I didn't," eald Tommy, ' "At least, not at first. I thought she was Just a dancing girl. And I thought her father was a head waiter, and that Casimir was a silly ass who'd got Shakespeare on the brain. I'd have chucked the whole thing and kicked Casimir next time I saw him, only that I really did want to " "You wanted to marry Calypso?" "Most frightfully," said Tommy, who is a very simple soul. "Considering your position," I said, "and your profession, and and my sister Emily, don't you think ' you ought to have hesitated about marrying mar-rying a girl like that?" "I suppose I ought," said Tommy. "But I didn't. A fellow doesn't, you know, when he's I told you that Calypso laid me out, absolutely a gone man, the very moment I saw her." That Is all very well; but I still think Tommy ought to have thought what he was doing. If he married her, supposing her to be, as he thought, simply a German dancing girl, he would have had to take her home with him and she would have been the "curate's wife In my sister Emily's parish. What sort of example exam-ple was Calypso likely to set to members mem-bers of the Girls' Friendly society? What would the members of the Mothers' union have thought about her? What would dear old Canon Pyke, simplest, gentlest, most innocent inno-cent of men, have thought of a curate's cu-rate's wife who kicked her legs Into the air on the platform of his parochial paro-chial hall at the annual entertainment of the Temperance society? And Emily herself? My imagination imagina-tion utterly failed when I tried to Imagine Emily's reception of Calypso. Calyp-so. She had not a very high opinion of Tommy before he went to Berlin. In her original Jetter to me about his disappearance she had said that he was not altogether suited to be a clergyman. She would have been confirmed con-firmed in that opinion when he came back with Calypso for a wife. There was no real harm In the girl. She was as thoroughly respectable as Viola Vio-la Temple was. But Edmund Troy-te, Troy-te, who was a man of the world, shied at the idea of his nephew marrying her. Emily, who is a lady not of this world but of the next, would have been outraged and scandalized, if Canon Pyke's curate, a man who preached to her on Sundays, brought home Calypso as a wife. How would Calypso have taught a class In Sunday Sun-day school? Emily would regard It as part of the duty of a curate's wife to teach a class In Sunday school. There are things which Tommy certainly ought to have thought about but did not. As he said, "a fellow doesn't" when he has fallen suddenly and violently In love. And, of course, there were other considerations. consid-erations. Calypso really was a princess. prin-cess. Tommy did not know that, at the time. Perhaps no one In the parish par-ish would have known It at first; but in the end it would have leaked out. What would have happened? My sister sis-ter is no more a snob than the rest of us; but, like all decent people, she has a respect for royalty. She might severely condemn the .manners, customs cus-toms and morals of a Berlin cabaret dancer ; but she Is not the woman to do more than whisper nasty things about a princess. Her position would be really awkward. A curate's wife occupies a definite, quite humble place in a parish. But a princess In any well regulated church is received at the door by the clergy in full canonicals, ca-nonicals, has a gilt and crimson chair to sit on, Instead of being herded Into In-to a pew like other, people, and Is often prayed for by name In the course of the service. What could be done about a princess who Is also the curate's wife? But these complicated problems did not trouble Tommy. He was able CHAPTER IX Continued 11 Janet Church, tired of standing by i - j herself and very curious to know v what was going on, edged slowly to ward the table at which Tommy was Bitting. The king, who has very harp eyes, noticed her. "By the way," he said, "why did you bring your aunt with you? Cas--lmlr tells me that she's your aunt. I suppose she Is your aunt? I used to -say cousin myself sometimes, and occasionally sister not that any one ever believed me but I never thought of aunt. I suppose now that ehe isn't but she can't be, can't possibly pos-sibly be. But still some men have queer fancies. I suppose she isn't Miss Temple, Is she?" "r "No, she's not," said Tommy. "That's almost a pity," said the king. "I don't think Calypso would have objected to her. I don't think even the patriarch would have minded. mind-ed. However, if she isn't " He had to drop his voice at the last words, for Janet had come quite close to them. The king greeted, her In the most friendly manner. "I'm just giving your nephew a little advice," he said. "I was talking talk-ing about the financial position of Lystria. Low rate of exchange and all that, you know. But the worst of it Is that the people simply wron't pay their taxes. At least, they wouldn't In my time. Ever since I've been here I've been thinking things over and I see now that I .went the wrong way about collecting collect-ing taxes. All governments make the same mistake. They send 'round disagreeable dis-agreeable men with large blue papers pa-pers and threaten people who don't pay up. That's the wrong way to get money. As head waiter in the Mascotte I make more in a single month than I ever got out of Lystria In a year. I don't threaten any one. I don't ask any one for a tip. -A good waiter can make a man feel like a worm if he orders anything cheaper cheap-er than champagne, and without speaking a word can .see to It that he gets a ten per cent tip at least on every bill that's paid. I take . fifty per cent of what the waiters get. That's revenue, collected without the slightest difficulty. What I'm advising ad-vising your nephew to do Is to try the same plan in Lystria. Fire all the exislting tax collectors. They're an utterly worthless lot, and their methods are antiquated. Hire a staff of waiters from some place like this. Employ them on a fifty-fifty basis, and Just see what you get In. Now -what do you think of that plan, Miss Temple?" "My name isn't Temple," said Janet. "It's ". "Of course not," said the king. "Norheys told me it wasn't." "It's Church. Miss Janet Church." She spoke stiffly. Her impression was that the king was a very drunk head waiter. "Church," said the king. "How very ecclesiastical ! And Norheys says he's a curate. You ought to be able to handle the patriarch between you." "I'm going to Lystria." said Janet, "to enlist the patriarch's sympathies In the cause of World I'eace Through the Union of Christian Churches." The king looked at her for a moment mo-ment with a little puzzled frown on his forehead. Then he turned to Tommy. "I must say you're managing this uncommonly well," he said. ''If you can start the patriarch arguing about religion, he'll forget It's an extraordinarily extraor-dinarily Ingenious plan. I wish I'd thought of It In my time. But then 1 never had an aunt who could have done it. I wish I could be there, Miss Church. I'd like to hear you and the patriarch at it together. But I can't go. They'd never let me cross the frontier. Besides. I must hold on to my Job here. It's all I have to live on." Janet turned away. Drunken head Janet Church, Tired of Standing by Herself and Very Curious to Know What Was Going On, Edged Slowly Toward the Table at Which Tommy Was Sitting. mensely. They know him a great deal better than we do." . "That's "what I'm getting at," said Tommy. "Casimir admires Shakespeare Shake-speare tremendously, and I dare say the king does too. I don't profess myself to know all the plays off by heart. Still I've read them. At leaot, I've read most of them. Do you remember re-member the beginning of one of the plays I didn't remember which It was at the time, but I've looked It up since, and It's "The Taming of the Shrew." At the beginning of it there's a kind of little play which hasn't anything to do with the shrew, or the turning or anything else." No more than Tommy am I a Shakespearean scholar. But I recollect recol-lect that there was a kind of prologue pro-logue to "The Taming of the Shrew." "It's about a sort of spoof," said to go to sleep after little more than an hour's wakefulness, rest quietly and awake next morning prepared to play out to the end what he supposed sup-posed to be Casimir's game. When he came down next morning he went to the head clerk in the reception re-ception office and asked whether Count Casimir had called or sent any message. Casimir had done neither. But the head clerk, who felt it his duty to watch over his guests, told Tommy that he ought to go to the police office at once to show his passport pass-port and obtain permission to remain in Berlin. This, he said, was necessary neces-sary In the case of all foreigners who wished to stay more than two days. The whole business, so he assured Tommy, was purely formal, tiresome, but nothing worse. Tommy had nothing noth-ing to do except display his passport. He would Iidmediately receive the necessary written permit. It was called Tommy wrote down the word to make sure of remembering it an Ausweis. (TO BE CONTINUED.) waiters who babbled neither amused nor Interested her. She left the rotiu with great dignity. Half an hour later, after receiving a great deal more good advice, Tommy managed to get off and go back to his hotel. CHAPTER X. I have had several talks with Tommy Tom-my about what happened In Berlin. It was easy, or fairly easy to get at the facts. It was very much more difficult to find out what Tommy thought about It all. "But didn't the whole thing strike you as odd?" I asked him. "Of course it did," said Tommy. "Odd Is hardly the word for It. It was simply mad." "Still, jou went on with it. I mean to say, you didn't try to clear things j BP." I "I tld nothing else except try to slear things up," said Tommy. "I I Tommy, "which a lot of people played off on a ragged beggar called Christopher Chris-topher Sly, pretending to belieVe that the poor man was a king or a great lord or something until they very nearly persuaded him that he was!" I remembered the scene when Tommy Tom-my described It. A certain lord, returning re-turning from hunting with his attendants, at-tendants, all of them In merry mood, found a beggar In a bed In an Inn. And out of sheer gaiety of heart set to work to persuade him that he was a wealthy nobleman. "My Idea was," said Tommy, "that they were trying that trick on with me. I don't know how the game ended end-ed In Shakespeare. In fact I don't think it did end. But I thought I might Just as well go through with it and see what happened. There was Calypso, you see." "Yes," I said. "You've told me how you felt about her. Did you believe she was a princess?" |