It does not need toys
so much. A Republic is the people--and there are more people than
kings."
"It's things like that his lordship says, according to Jennings,"
said Dowson. "Jennings is never quite sure he's in earnest. He
has a satirical way--And the company always laugh."
Mademoiselle had spoken thoughtfully and as if half to her inner
self instead of to Dowson. She added something even more thoughtfully
now.
"The same kind of people laughed before the French Revolution,"
she murmured.
"I'm not scholar enough to know much about that--that was a long
time ago, wasn't it?" Dowson remarked.
"A long time ago," said Mademoiselle.
Dowson's reply was quite free from tragic reminiscence.
"Well, I must say, I like a respectable Royal Family myself," she
observed. "There's something solid and comfortable about it--besides
the coronations and weddings and procession with all the pictures
in the Illustrated London News. Give me a nice, well-behaved Royal
Family."
CHAPTER XVII
"A nice, well-behaved Royal Family." There had been several of them
in Europe for some time. An appreciable number of them had prided
themselves, even a shade ostentatiously, upon their domesticity.
The moral views of a few had been believed to border upon the
high principles inscribed in copy books. Some, however, had not.
A more important power or so had veered from the exact following
of these commendable axioms--had high-handedly behaved according
to their royal will and tastes.
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