o him in the most
confidential and familiar way imaginable.

'My dear fellow,' he said, 'your arrival is most timely. To-morrow
would have been too late. It is most kind of you.'

'I rejoice to be of service----'

'Service, my friend! Such a word between you and me? Never!
Counsel--support--sympathy--such as one potentate may claim from
another--these I expect from you. But let me explain to you exactly
how the case stands. In the first place, I feel that I am getting
old.'

After saying this the King paused as if for a reply. Raymond had never
known what it was to pay a compliment in his life; but now something
prompted him to say, with a smile and a bow--

'Not at all. Your Majesty is, to all intents and purposes, as young as
I am.'

'Ah, it is very good of you to say that,' sighed his Majesty, looking
highly gratified. 'But I really am old--older than you would suppose;
and, if you can believe it, some of my scoundrelly subjects have said
(behind my back) that I am growing senile--that is the word the
villains use--and they are plotting to dethrone me at ten o'clock
to-morrow morning.'

'A conspiracy?'

'Nothing less. It is announced to take place at Drury Lane Theatre,
and the house is sold, from pit to gallery.'

'Oh! it is only a play, then?' said Raymond, in a relieved tone.

'I don't know what you mean by a play,' returned the King, looking
slightly hurt. 'It takes place on the stage, of course; but it is as
much earnest as anything that goes on in London.'

'Certainly--of course,' said Raymond, anxious not to seem ignorant of
fashionable customs. 'But whom do the conspirators mean to put on the
throne in your stead? Your son?'

'My Assimund, you mean? Well, that is just the point. My son Assimund
is a perfectly harmless young fellow, but--in fact--he is rather too
much so.'

'Too much so?'

'Yes--he is--as I might say--hum!' And the King tapped his forehead
significantly.

'You don't mean------' And Raymond laid his forefinger between his
eyes and then shook it in the air.

'Fact, I assure you.'

'Dear me, how sad!'

'So now you see what I am driving at,' added the King more briskly.

'Well, I hardly--that is----'

'Briefly, then, the part of the usurper has not yet been given out.
But I have reigned fifty years, and, between you and me, I'm tired of
it. This crown of mine'--the King laid his hand upon the diadem he
wore--'often gives me a headache. Ah, I see you understand that.
Y