"Was Your Majesty's father a king?"

"He was," was the answer.

"Was his father of royal blood?"

"No; he was not," said in reply the King. "My grandfather was a man of thepeople; but his pre-eminent virtue, his great ability as a statesman,and the dignity and nobility of his character made him the unanimouschoice of the nation as its sovereign."

"I am sorry to hear that," exclaimed the Absolute Fool; "for it makes itnecessary for me to decline the kind offer of your daughter inmarriage. If I marry a princess at all, she must be one who can traceback her lineage through a long line of royal ancestors." And as hespoke, his breast swelled with manly pride.