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Page 65
GUEST (to the STRANGER). A delightful evening!
STRANGER. Wonderful.
(All the Frock Coats creep away.)
FATHER (an elderly, overdressed man with an eye-glass and military
bearing crosses to the doctor). What? Are you here?
DOCTOR. Yes, Father-in-law. I'm here. I go everywhere he goes.
FATHER. It's too late in the day to call me father-in-law. Besides,
I'm _his_ father-in-law now.
DOCTOR. Does he know you?
FATHER. No. He's not had that honour; and I must ask you to
preserve my incognito. Is it true he's made gold?
DOCTOR. So it's said. But it's certain he left his wife while she
was in childbed.
FATHER. Does that mean I can expect a third son-in-law soon? I
don't like the idea! The uncertainty of my position makes me hate
being a father-in-law at all. Of course, I've nothing to say
against it, since. ...
(The tables have now been cleared; the cloths and the candelabra
have been removed, so that the tables themselves, which are merely
boards supported on trestles, are all that remain. A big stoneware
jug has been brought in and small jugs of simple form have been put
on the high table. The people in rags sit down next to the STRANGER
at the high table; and the FATHER sits astride a chair and stares
at him.)
CAESAR (knocking on the table). Gentlemen! This feast has been
called royal, not on account of the excellence of the service
which, on the contrary, has been wretched; but because the man,
whom we have honoured, is a king, a king in the realm of the
Intellect. Only I am able to judge of that. (One of the people in
rags laughs.) Quiet. Wretch! But he's more than a king, he's a man
of the people, of the humblest. A friend of the oppressed, the
guardian of fools, the bringer of happiness to idiots. I don't know
whether he's succeeded in making gold. I don't worry about that,
and I hardly believe it ... (There is a murmur. Two policemen come
in and sit by the door; the musicians come down and take seats at
the tables.) ... but supposing he has, he has answered all the
questions that the daily press has been trying to solve for the
last fifty years. ... It's only an assumption--
STRANGER. Gentlemen!
RAGGED PERSON. No. Don't interrupt him.
CAESAR. A mere assumption without real foundation, and the analysis
may be wrong!
ANOTHER RAGGED PERSON. Don't talk nonsense!
STRANGER. Speaking in my capacity as guest of honour at this
gathering I should say that it would be of interest to those taking
part to hear the grounds on which I've based my proof. ...
CAESAR. We don't want to hear that. No, no.
FATHER. Wait! I think justice demands that the accused should be
allowed to explain himself. Couldn't our guest of honour tell the
company his secret in a few words?
STRANGER. As the discoverer I can't give away my secret. But that's
not necessary, because I've submitted my results to an authority
under oath.
CAESAR. Then the whole thing's nonsense, the whole thing! We don't
believe authorities--we're free-thinkers. Did you ever hear
anything so impudent? That we should honour a mystery man, an
arch-swindler, a charlatan, in good faith.
FATHER. Wait a little, my good people!
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