t!" he said, and, at the King's dictation, altered his V into a W.

"Foreigner?" he grunted; Jingalese names he could spell properly.

"Of foreign extraction," said the King, "my great-grandfather came over
to this country and was naturalized."

"Oh, we don't want to hear about your great-grandfather!" said the
sergeant, cutting him short.

At this moment one of the higher inspectors came into the room.

"Address--occupation?" went on his interlocutor, busy with his form.

The King named the dwelling from which he emanated.

"Come, come!" said the official voice, "no nonsense here! What address?"

The inspector was now looking at the prisoner. He touched the sergeant
upon the shoulder, and made a gesture for the two constables to stand
back.

"Will you please to come this way, sir?" he said, in a tone of very
marked respect.

The King followed him to an inner room.

The inspector closed the door. "I beg your Majesty's pardon," he said.
"This is a most regrettable occurrence. Fortunately, none of those men
know."

The King smiled. "I tried not to give myself away before I was obliged
to," he said.

"Your Majesty must think we are all quite mad."

"Not at all. So far as I know, every man I have encountered has merely
done his duty. Your methods of arrest are a little--arbitrary, shall I
say?"

"That is unavoidable, sir, when we have large crowds to deal with."

"I can understand that. A woman was being crushed; I helped her to get
over the railings. I suppose that was wrong?"

The inspector smiled apologetically. "Men have been fined for it, before
now, sir," said he.

"Very well, I will pay my fine," smiled the King. "And then, if you
don't mind, I will go home."

His Majesty's kindly humor won the inspector's gratitude. "I'm sure it's
very good of your Majesty to treat the matter so lightly."

"It was entirely my own fault," said the King. "How was I to be
recognized?"

"You took us off guard, sir. We were not informed that your Majesty
would be going anywhere to-night."

"Is that the rule?"

"It is always our business to inquire."

"I should not have told any one."

"It would still, sir, have been our business to find out."

"You surprise me!" said the King. It had never dawned upon him that he
was so watched. "And so to-night, for the first time, I gave you the
slip?"

"I take the blame, sir," said the inspector; his voice was grave.

"Why should you? No harm has been done. The onl