more favorable outcome. However, while you are seeking to gain the king’s favor, you will need above all to keep close to the best and most discreet men, and you should often be seen in the company of those who are dearest to the king. But pay all the necessary outlay out of your own means, however long this probation may last, unless you should sometime be invited by the king’s order to his tables. And let it not be true in your case as is true in the case of many an unwise man, that the more often you find yourself invited, the more you begin to long for another’s fare, lest upright men come to regard you as selfish and impertinent, and those become hostile who were formerly your friends and comrades. Walk uprightly, therefore, and be heedful in all such matters, lest evil befall you through lack of foresight. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ XXXI WHY ONE SHOULD NOT WEAR A MANTLE IN THE ROYAL PRESENCE _Son._ If you permit, I will ask to be allowed a few words in this discussion. On what do you base your statement that it is considered good deportment among princes for a man to come bareheaded and without a mantle when he comes to seek audience with them. If anyone did thus in the country, the mob would say that the man was a fool to run about in that way without a cloak like a ninny. _Father._ I told you a little earlier in our conversation that many a man goes about in ignorance as to what is fitting in a king’s house, because many things look stupid to the multitude which are considered proper in the presence of kings and other great men. Now you shall know of a truth, not only that it is fitting to come without a mantle when one appears for the first time before a king, but also that in many places it is as proper to wear one’s mantle in the royal presence as to leave it off. But since you have asked the reason why it should seem more decorous to appear before princes without one’s mantle than to wear it, it might be a more than sufficient answer to say that it is the custom wherever well-bred men appear in the presence of mighty lords to come without a mantle, and that whoever is ignorant of that custom is there called a churl.