King John of Jingalo

King John of Jingalo

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Title: King John of Jingalo The Story of a Monarch in Difficulties
Author: Laurence Housman
Release Date: June 4, 2006 [EBook #18498]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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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.
Glancing across the table towards his consort he saw that she was still
engrossed in the opening of her letters--large stiff envelopes,
conspicuously crested, containing squarish sheets of unfolded
note-paper; for it was a rule of the Court that no creased
correspondence should ever solicit the attention of the royal eye, and
that all letters should be written upon one side only. The Queen was
very fond of receiving these spacious missives; though they contained
little of importance they came to her from half the crowned heads of
Europe, as well as from the most select circle of Jingalese aristocracy.
They gave occupation to two secretaries, and were a daily reminder to
her Majesty that, in her own country at any rate, she was the
acknowledged leader of society.
Having looked at his watch the King said: "My dear, what are you
going to do to-day?"
"Really," replied the Queen, "I don't quite know; I have not yet looked
at my diary."
Her Majesty seldom did know anything of the day's program until she
had consulted her secretaries, who, with dovetailing ingenuity, arranged
her hours and booked to each day--often many months in advance--the
engagements which lay ahead. Therein she showed a calmer and more
philosophic temperament than her consort. The King always knew;
every day of his life with anxious forecast he consulted his diary while
shaving, and breakfasted with its troubling details fresh upon his
recollection.
Having answered his inquiry the Queen relapsed into her
correspondence, while the King resumed his newspaper; and the
moment may be regarded as propitious for presenting the reader with a

portrait of these two august personages, since so good an opportunity
may not occur again. The kind of portrait we offer is, of course, of an
up-to-date and biographical character, and does not limit itself to those
circumstances of time and space in which the commencement of this
history has landed us.
So, first, we take the King,--not as we have just found him, seated at a
table with chair turned sideways and features sharply illuminated by the
reflected lights of the journal he holds in his hands--for thus we do not
see him to advantage, and it is to advantage that we would exhibit in its
externals a