"You alone of all the earth-rapt monarchs of Meleager that ever I have known or heard of have pursued an even tenor of deportment, holding yourself strictly aloof from the besetting snares of popular adulation and of selfish indolence. You have never strained to encroach on the prerogative of the hierarchy, yet you have openly and boldly clung to such shreds of power as our constitution legally permits you to exercise. You have never stooped to flatter the priestly caste; although you have given proof again and again that you clearly understand and appreciate the intertwining nature of the bonds that unite the offices of King and council. You have shown yourself affable and gracious to our nobility; kindly and sympathetic to the people without any ulterior object in your behaviour. You have forborne to break our laws with regard to dalliance with women, for in your case no spy has as yet reported any such dereliction on your part. You have worked well, within the limits assigned to you, to assist the well-being of the community; and it is also evident that you are a cordial upholder of our fundamental theory that human happiness rather than human progress offers the truest mark for statesmanship, and that those who enjoy the sweets of office and power must alone taste of the bitter punishment entailed by their own failure or disloyalty. In my eyes, therefore, you are the ideal King; and yet, and yet, you will not survive to behold the complement of the half score of years of sovereignty, which has only once been attained hitherto in the whole course of Meleagrian annals. Your very virtues of self-restraint and implicit honour have only contrived to arouse in its direst shape that spectre of suspicion which is the guiding genius of our state craft. In other words, even a good King of Meleager is likewise foredoomed, whatever struggles and sacrifices he may make to gain and hold the approval of his virtual masters.