'It'll only bring us
harm. The Bible says that Kings ain't to waste their strength on women,
'specially when they've got a new raw Kingdom to work over.'
"'For the last time of answering, I will,' said Dravot, and he went away
through the pine trees looking like a big red devil, the sun being on his
crown and beard and all.
"But getting a wife was not as easy as Dan thought. He put it before the
Council, and there was no answer till Billy Fish said that he'd better ask the
girls. Dravot damned them all round.
"'What's wrong with me?' he shouts, standing by the idol Imbra. 'Am I a dog,
or am I not enough of a man for your wenches? Haven't I put the shadow of my
hand over this country? Who stopped the last Afghan raid?' It was me really,
but Dravot was too angry to remember. 'Who bought your guns? Who repaired the
bridges? Who's the Grand Master of the sign cut in the stone?' says he, and he
thumped his hand on the block that he used to sit on in Lodge, and at Council,
which opened like Lodge always. Billy Fish said nothing, and no more did the
others. 'Keep your hair on, Dan,' said I, 'and ask the girls. That's how it's
done at Home, and these people are quite English.'
"'The marriage of the King is a matter of State,' says Dan, in a white-hot
rage, for he could feel, I hope, that he was going against his better mind.
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