A Young Turkish Catastrophe In Two Scenes

The Minister for Fine Arts (to whose Department had been lately added the new sub-section of Electoral Engineering) paid a business visit to the Grand Vizier.  According to Eastern etiquette they discoursed for a while on indifferent subjects.  The minister only checked himself in time from making a passing reference to the Marathon Race, remembering that the Vizier had a Persian grandmother and might consider any allusion to Marathon as somewhat tactless.  Presently the Minister broached the subject of his interview.