“Sit down, Roger!” he said,—then, as De Launay obeyed the invitation, he pushed over a box of cigars, and added—“You look exceedingly tired, my friend! Something has bored you more than usual? Take a lesson from those interesting creatures!” and he pointed with the stem of his pipe to the bottled animalculae—“They are never bored,—never weary of doing mischief! They are just now living under the pleasing delusion that the glass tube they are in is a man, and that they are eating him up alive. Little devils! Nothing will exhaust their vitality till they have gorged themselves to death! Just like a great many human beings!”
“I am not in the mood for studying animalculae,” said De Launay irritably, as he lit a cigar.
“No? But why not? They are really quite as interesting as ourselves!”
“Look here, Von Glauben, I want you to be serious—”
“My friend, I am always serious,” declared the Professor—“Even when I laugh, I laugh seriously. My laughter is as real as myself.”
“What would you think,”—pursued De Launay—“of a king who freely expressed his own opinions?”
“I should say he was a brave man,” answered the Professor; “He would certainly deserve my respect, and he should have it. Even if the laws of etiquette were not existent, I should feel justified in taking off my hat to him.”
“Never from henceforth wear a hat at all then,” said De Launay—“It will save you the trouble of continually doffing it at every glimpse of his Majesty!”
Von Glauben drew his pipe from his mouth and gazed blankly at the ceiling for a few moments in silence. “His Majesty?” he presently murmured—“Our Majesty?”
“Yes; our Majesty—our King”—replied De Launay—“For some inscrutable reason or other he has suddenly adopted the dangerous policy of speaking his mind. What now?”