King John of Jingalo: The Story of a Monarch in DifficultiesHousman, Laurence
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King John of Jingalo: The Story of a Monarch in Difficulties
Housman, Laurence
Kings and rulers -- Fiction
"I quite agree," he replied.
"But----" She paused, searching her mind for succor; and then, having
found it, "Why not see the Archbishop about it?" she urged; "I am sure
he could remove all your difficulties."
Max almost jumped out of his skin before he perceived how guileless had
been his mother's remark. But the opportunity was certainly not to be
missed.
"I should be delighted to see him," he said. "Indeed, I think he more
than any one might solve my difficulty."
"Then you shall!" cried his mother, and fondly believed that, without
becoming entangled herself she had wrought a good work and provided
means to a solution. The Archbishop would, of course, be able to solve
for him any difficulties of conscience, and to put such things as--well,
anything he might have done in the past--in its right and proper place.
Her Majesty had a great belief in archbishops. At the hands of one she
had been confirmed, it had taken two of them to marry her, and by one or
another each of her four children had been well and truly baptized. They
had also preached sermons of eloquent optimism over the two who had so
prematurely died. And since she regarded all that they had done for her
as eminently successful in result, they stood out in her world as the
most efficient aids to the spiritual etceteras of life; and if any moral
difficulty dimmed for a moment the clear horizon of her soul she would
turn to the nearest archbishop for advice and encouragement.
And so the Archbishop came to see Prince Max in his convalescence, and
sat by his side and talked to him, and tried by various diplomatic
shifts to draw his confidence in the salutary direction desired by her
Majesty; for he and the Queen had held conversation together on the
matter. And Max, lying back at ease upon his cushions, and pretending to
be a little further from complete recovery than he really was, examined
that face of stern ecclesiastical mold, and seeking therein for some
likeness to his beloved found none.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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