King Charles addresses a joint meeting of Congress and presents the President with a submarine bell.

OK. Hon. The King of the United Kingdom, on Tuesday, delivered an address to a joint session of the United States Congress. This is, for the record, the second time in history a British monarch has spoken to both chambers. The first was Queen Elizabeth II, in 1991, in the George Herbert Walker Bush administration, on a very different Tuesday.

The King gave a measured speech. He toasted the indispensable nature of the Anglo-American alliance. He spoke, in his measured way, about the 250th anniversary of the American republic. He spoke about the war years. He spoke about climate. He thanked the Speaker. He did not, by all available accounts, put a foot wrong.

The evening was the state dinner, in white tie, in the State Dining Room, the first formal white-tie event at the White House since George W. Bush hosted Queen Elizabeth II in 2007. The guest list, hon, was the guest list of the new America. Tim Cook of Apple. Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Fox primetime hosts. Several Cabinet secretaries. Ivanka. The royals. The President and First Lady. The Vice President and the Second Lady. More Fox primetime hosts. The Capitol Hill leadership, a few of them. The room, hon, was the room.

The gift, from the King to the President, was the bell from a former British Navy submarine. That is, in the diplomatic gift universe, an interesting gift. A bell from a submarine is not, hon, your standard gift. The standard state-visit gift is a book or a commemorative plate or a piece of art. A bell from a submarine is the kind of gift a king gives a president who the king has been told will appreciate a military object he can hold. The President, by all photographic evidence, did appreciate the bell.

I have been at closing dinners on real-estate deals. I have been at retirement dinners for casino hosts. I have seen a gift exchange go sideways. I have seen a gift exchange go right. The bell from the submarine, hon, was a right gift exchange. The bell is, in every photograph, on the table between the two heads of state and both men are, in every photograph, visibly happy with it.

The toast, the speech, the bell, the room. The protocol office did its job. The country, on Tuesday night, looked, for a stretch of three hours, like a country.

You ever notice how the days the country looks the most like itself are the days the King is in town.

Funny how that works.