"The Mayoress," replied Panky, "is a very dangerous woman; see how she
stood out about the way in which the Sunchild had worn his clothes before
they gave him the then Erewhonian dress. Besides, she is a sceptic at
heart, and so is that precious son of hers."

"She was quite right," said Hanky, with something of a snort. "She
brought him his dinner while he was still wearing the clothes he came in,
and if men do not notice how a man wears his clothes, women do. Besides,
there are many living who saw him wear them."

"Perhaps," said Panky, "but we should never have talked the King over if
we had not humoured him on this point. Yram nearly wrecked us by her
obstinacy. If we had not frightened her, and if your study, Hanky, had
not happened to have been burned . . . "

"Come, come, Panky, no more of that."

"Of course I do not doubt that it was an accident; nevertheless if your
study had not been accidentally burned, on the very night the clothes
were entrusted to you for earnest, patient, careful, scientific
investigation--and Yram very nearly burned too--we should never have
carried it through. See what work we had to get the King to allow the
way in which the clothes were worn to be a matter of opinion, not dogma.
What a pity it is that the clothes were not burned before the King's
tailor had copied them."

Hanky laughed heartily enough. "Yes," he said, "it was touch and go.
Why, I wonder, could not the Queen have put the clothes on a dummy that
would show back from front? As soon as it was brought into the council
chamber the King jumped to a conclusion, and we had to bundle both dummy