cept in
the love of his subjects?"

"So his father found, did he?" cried the Vicar, an aflame in a moment.

"The Life Guards!" I murmured. "It is the first regiment of all in
honour."

"Ay, my lad," said the Vicar. "It would have been well enough for you to
serve in the ranks of it, but to hold His Majesty's Commission!" Words
failed him, and he flew to the landlord's snuff-box, which that good
man, moved by subtle sympathy, held out, pat to the occasion.

Suddenly those words of my lord's that had at the time of their
utterance caught my attention so strongly flashed into my mind, seeming
now to find their explanation. If there were fault to be found in the
King, it did not lie with his own servants and officers to find it; I
was now of his household; my lord must have known what was on the way to
me from London when he addressed me so pointedly; and he could know only
because he had himself been the mover in the matter. I sprang up and ran
across to the Vicar, crying,

"Why, it is my lord's kindness! He has spoken for me."

"Ay, ay, it is my lord," was grunted and nodded round the circle in the
satisfaction of a discovery obvious so soon as made. The Vicar alone
dissented; he took another pinch and wagged his head petulantly.

"I don't think it's my lord," said he.

"But why not, sir, and who else?" I urged.

"I don't know, but I do not think it is my lord," he persisted.

Then I laughed at him, and he understood well that I mocked his dislike
of a plain-sailing everyday account of anything to which it might be
possible by hook or crook to attach a tag of mystery. He had harped back
to the prophecy, and would not have my lord come between him and his
hobby.

"You may laugh, Simon," said he gravely. "But it will be found to be as
I say."

I paid no more heed to him, but caught up my hat from the bench, crying
that I must run at once and offer thanks to my lord, for he was to set
out for London that day, and would be gone if I did not hasten.

"At least," conceded the Vicar, "you will do no harm by telling him. He
will wonder as much as we."

Laughing again, I ran off and left the company crowding to a man round
the stubborn Vicar. It was well indeed that I did not linger, for,
having come to the Manor at my best speed, I found my lord's coach
already at the door and himself in cloak and hat about to step into it.
But he waited to hear my breathless story, and, when I came to the pith
of it, snatched m