Steward: “Never any: It pleased the King his master, very late, To strike at me, upon his misconstruction; When he, conjunct, an’ flatterin’ his displeasure, Tripped me behind: bein’ down, insulted, railed, And put upon him such a deal of man, That worthy’d him, got praises of the King For him attemptin’ who was self-subdued; And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit, Drew me on here.” “Now then, my impassioned bard, _construez_! That’s Shakespeare.” “’Give it up! He’s drunk,” Beetle declared at the end of a blank half minute. “No, he isn’t,” said Turkey. “He’s a steward--on the estate--chattin’ to his employers.” “Well--look here, Turkey. You ask King if Shakespeare ever wrote his own plays, an’ he won’t give a dam’ what the steward said.” “I’ve not come here to play with ushers,” was McTurk’s view of the case. “I’d do it,” Beetle protested, “only he’d slay _me_! He don’t love me when I ask about things. I can give you the stuff to draw him--tons of it!” He broke forth into a précis, interspersed with praises, of Nathaniel Holmes and his commentators--especially the latter. He also mentioned Delia, with sorrow that he had not read her. He spoke through nearly the whole of prep; and the upshot of it was that McTurk relented and promised to approach King next “English” on the authenticity of Shakespeare’s plays. * * * * * The time and tone chosen were admirable. While King was warming himself by a preliminary canter round the Form’s literary deficiencies, Turkey coughed in a style which suggested a reminder to a slack _employé_ that it was time to stop chattering and get to work. As King began to bristle, Turkey inquired: “I’d be glad to know, sir, if it’s true that Shakespeare did not write his own plays at all?” “Good God!” said King most distinctly. Turkey coughed again piously. “They all say so in Ireland, sir.” “Ireland--Ireland--Ireland!” King overran Ireland with one blast of flame that should have been written in letters of brass for instruction to-day. At the end, Turkey coughed once more, and the cough said: “It is Shakespeare, and not my country, that you are hired to interpret to me.” He put it directly, too: “An’ is it true at all about the alleged plays, sir?”