An actor!  Oh, I thank Your Majesty for this most gracious sentence.  Conrad Eckhof will endeavor to do honor to himself and his despised new profession.

[Goes out.]

KING.

And as for you, my Lady Sonnsfeld, you may, the sooner the better, pack up your belongings and be off to Dresden where my cousin, the Elector of Saxony, has need of just such nymphs and graces for his court fireworks and his ballets.

SONNSFELD (going out, speaks aside).

In his anger he chooses punishments that can only delight any person of refinement. [She goes out.]

KING.

Wilhelmine!

WILHELMINE.

Your Majesty, what have I done that I am so unhappy as always to arouse your displeasure?

KING.

You call me “Majesty” because you lack a daughter’s heart for your father.  I have brought up my children in the good old German fashion; I have tried to keep all French vanities and French follies far from their childish hearts; on my throne I have tried to prove that Kings may set an example to their subjects, an example of how the simplest honest household may be ruled.  Have I succeeded in this?

WILHELMINE.

You have punished us severely enough for our faults.

KING.

This wigmaker—­who was to instruct you in all the ambiguities of the
French language—­

WILHELMINE.

He was not a wigmaker.

KING.  He was.

WILHELMINE.

Well, if he was, then you dislike him simply because you are so fond of your horrid pigtail.

KING.

The pigtail is a man’s best adornment.  In that braided hair lies concentrated power.  A pigtail is not a wild fluttering mass of disorder about one’s head—­the seat of the human soul—­such as our Hottentot dandies of today show in their long untidy hair.  It expresses, instead, a simple, pious and well-brushed order, entwined obedience, falling gently down over the shoulders, fit symbol for a Christian gentleman.  But I am tired of this eternal quarreling with you.  This present arrest shall be the last proof of my fatherly affection.  You will soon be free and mistress of your own actions.  I announce herewith that you will shortly be able to come and go at your own discretion.

WILHELMINE.

Father!

KING.

Is that tone sincere?

WILHELMINE.

It comes from a heart that will never cease to revere the best of men.

KING.

Then you realize that I desire only your happiness?  Yes, Wilhelmine, you will soon be able to do whatever you like, you may read French books, dance the minuet, keep an entire orchestra of musicians.  I have arranged all things for your happiness and for your freedom.

[Illustration:  KING FREDERICK WILLIAM I OF PRUSSIA R. SIEMERING]

WILHELMINE.  How may I understand this, father?