The Archbishop, by a simultaneous depression of the head and raising of the eyebrows, managed to convey his just sense of the honor which was being done him and the liberty that was being taken. "I wrote the other day," explained Max, "asking her to arrange a time when I might come and see you. In strict etiquette I believe that your Grace ought first to call upon me; but we have so few precedents to go by. She has, I trust, done me the honor to tell you that we are engaged?" "I have been informed of the circumstance," replied the Archbishop with stately formality. The Prince took the matter boldly in hand. "From your manner I have to presume that we have not the happiness of your consent?" "My consent was not asked." "Had it been?" "I could not have given it." "That I think," said the Prince, "would have been the perfectly correct attitude until such time as the King gave his. It is for that we have been waiting; had it not been so I should have come to you earlier." "Early or late, my answer to your Highness would always be the same." "May I ask upon what grounds?" "I would ask, sir, in return, upon what grounds is it suitable that you should marry my daughter?" "It so happens," replied Max, "that I am in love with her." "What precisely, sir, to your mind does the phrase 'being in love' convey?" The Prince saw that the tussle was coming; he gathered his thoughts together, then said, "An intense personal desire to endow a certain woman with motherhood." The Archbishop flushed: sharp enmity showed itself in his eyes; he made a gesture of repulsion. "Ah!" cried Max, "does that shock the Church?" The challenge went unanswered; instead came question. "Have you not had this desire before--in other directions?" "Never!" exclaimed Max. "No, never!" The Archbishop eyed him keenly. "You have had experience." "I have lived my life openly," said the Prince. "I was aware of that," returned his Grace. "Need I trouble your Highness with any further grounds for my refusal? Not with my consent shall my daughter marry a libertine." "Great Judge of Heaven!" cried Max, springing to his feet. "Hark to this old man!" "Don't shout," said the Archbishop; "He hears you." Max's scorn dropped back like a rocket to earth. "Yes," he retorted, "no doubt! The question is, are you capable of hearing Him?" "I am always ready to be instructed," replied his Grace sarcastically. "I must remind you," said the Prince, "that as a Doctor of Divinity I have some claim. Yes," he went on in answer to the Archbishop's look of astonishment, "though you have forgotten the circumstance, you yourself dubbed me Theologian by hitting me over the head with a Greek Testament." The Archbishop accepted the reminiscence. "In that case," said he, "I bow to your Highness's authority."