"I daresay it was an excellent dinner." King blinked his eyes and then turned them upon the passing show.

He was coming to understand the real difference between men.
"I say, who is that just passing--the lady in the victoria ?" he asked abruptly.
"That is the Countess Marlanx." "Whew! I thought she was the queen!" Hobbs went into details concerning the beautiful Countess.

During the hour and a half of display he pointed out to King all of the great personages, giving a Baedeker-like account of their doings from childhood up, quite satisfying that gentleman's curiosity and involving his cupidity at the same time.
When, at last, the show was over, Truxton and the voluble little interpreter, whom he had employed for the occasion, strolled leisurely back to the heart of the town.

Something had come over King, changing the quaint old city from a prosaic collection of shops and thoroughfares into a veritable playground for Cinderellas and Prince Charmings.

The women, to his startled imagination, had been suddenly transformed from lackadaisical drudges into radiant personages at whose feet it would be a pleasure to fall, in whose defence it would be divine to serve; the men were the cavaliers that had called to him from the pages of chivalrous tales, ever since the days of his childhood.