"On one other matter I should also like to be informed," interposed I, "and I trust you will not condemn this question as superfluous. Tell me, why out of all the inhabitants of the Earth have I, a bankrupt in worldly glory and success, a person of mediocre attainments and the owner of no special gifts of beauty or rank, thus been chosen to fill so exalted a position? I ask from sheer curiosity, and from no subtle desire to plead my unfitness as an excuse to decline your proffered, and indeed accepted, honour." My companion seemed to approve my question. A humorous look flitted over his features as he dryly answered: "You are fully justified in your inquiry; but you must recall that I have already mentioned that, though your world is large, my own field of choice is very limited. Our King, as I have already said, must be naturally a true Child of the Sun; in other words, he must be tall, fair, blue-eyed. This is essential, and such restrictions practically limit my search to your northern races, and mainly to such as are of Teutonic stock. Secondly, our King elect must be of middle age, for past experience and a ripe intelligence are also necessary to our plans. Thirdly, he must be either a bachelor or a widower, and preferably a misogynist at heart. He must not quit the Earth homesick; he must not be a natural prey to the influence of women, so far as it is possible to guard against this danger, the mainspring of all our fears in Meleager. For the sheer possibility of the founding of a royal race springing from the union of the Child of the Sun with a maiden of Meleager is a constant cause of alarm and watchfulness on the part of our hierarchy. Not to mention the mischief resulting from any such intrigue to our body politic, the possible birth of a Prince, a connecting link between the Divine and the Human, might in a few days, nay, in a few hours, shatter in pieces the whole edifice of the present system of government that it has taken so many centuries of unremitting wisdom and state craft to erect. Surely I need not dwell on this all-important phase? Last of all, we must have a comely personality and gentle birth combined with high intellectual gifts and training. This combination of qualities is not so easy to discover as it ought to be on your Earth. Your handsome nobles are either illiterate or debauched, and are often both simultaneously; or else they are slaves to family ties or to female influence in some form; whilst those who are both noble by birth and breeding and also highly cultivated are usually undesirable for our high purpose owing to their physical defects. In spite of all this, there are doubtless many hundreds of persons living who would be eligible and would answer to all our requirements as well as or even better than yourself; nevertheless, after much reflection I have good reason to suppose that the hierarchy of Meleager, whose envoy and servant I am, will find no cause of quarrel with my choice."