orses knew.

As the King moved away from that brief colloquy, one phrase in
particular stuck in his mind. "He was reckoned too risky after that."
Was that, he wondered, what the Prime Minister was thinking about him
now; had he, indeed, proved himself too risky for future use? If so
there would be no yielding at the eleventh hour; and perhaps it was as
well that to-morrow would see him harnessed to the royal coach for the
last time.

CHAPTER XV

A DEED WITHOUT A NAME

I

The King and Queen sat in their state coach responding with low bows to
the plaudits of the crowd. Their velvets and ermines lay heavy upon
them, for although it was now November, the day was close and warm, and
there seemed to be thunder in the air.

The King, in this his Jubilee year, had resumed wearing his crown on
great State occasions, for he found that the people liked it. He had
worn it at the Foot-washing; and every one then admitted that it gave
the true symbolic touch to the whole ceremony. And now for the last
time he was wearing it again.

Artistically he was right; a cocked hat, of nineteenth-century pattern,
does not accord well with robes in the style of the sixteenth. In some
countries that mistake is made by royalty out of compliment to the army;
but if on these State occasions sartorial compliments are to be paid
irrespective of the general effect, then surely your monarch should wear
a wig as representative of the law, lawn-sleeves in honor of the Church,
and divide the rest of his person impartially between the army, the
navy, and the doctors. Thus all the great professions would receive
their due recognition, and we should presently find so symbolical a
combination just as harmonious and dignified, and as pregnant with
meaning, as we do the heraldic quarterings by which the mixed blood of
ancestry is so proudly displayed. We can get accustomed to anything if
there is a good reason for it; but when we cease to be reasonable,
beauty should be our only guide. In this case reason as well as beauty
had induced King John of Jingalo to reject the cocked hat and to resume
the crown.

The royal coach had already borne its occupants along two miles of the
route; and continued exercise was making them warm.

"Good Heavens!" exclaimed the King, "it's very stuffy in here; I feel as
if I were in a furnace. Why did you ask to have the windows closed, my
dear?"

"It makes one feel so much safer," said the Queen, keeping h