by Dr Kelman called to see his patient; and now that Irene's
eyes were opened, she saw clearly enough that he was both annoyed and
puzzled at finding His Majesty rather better. He pretended however to
congratulate him, saying he believed he was quite fit to see the lord
chamberlain: he wanted his signature to something important; only he
must not strain his mind to understand it, whatever it might be: if His
Majesty did, he would not be answerable for the consequences. The king
said he would see the lord chamberlain, and the doctor went.

Then Irene gave him more bread and wine, and the king ate and drank,
and smiled a feeble smile, the first real one she had seen for many a
day. He said he felt much better, and would soon be able to take
matters into his own hands again. He had a strange miserable feeling,
he said, that things were going terribly wrong, although he could not
tell how. Then the princess told him that Curdie had come, and that at
night, when all was quiet for nobody in the palace must know, he would
pay His Majesty a visit. Her great-great-grandmother had sent him, she
said. The king looked strangely upon her, but the strange look passed
into a smile clearer than the first, and irene's heart throbbed with
delight.

CHAPTER 22

The Lord Chamberlain

At noon the lord chamberlain appeared. With a long, low bow, and paper
in hand, he stepped softly into the room. Greeting His Majesty with
every appearance of the profoundest respect, and congratulating him on
the evident progress he had made, he declared himself sorry to trouble
him, but there were certain papers, he said, which required his
signature--and therewith drew nearer to the king, who lay looking at
him doubtfully. He was a lean, long, yellow man, with a small head,
bald over the top, and tufted at the back and about the ears. He had a
very thin, prominent, hooked nose, and a quantity of loose skin under
his chin and about the throat, which came craning up out of his
neckcloth. His eyes were very small, sharp, and glittering, and looked
black as jet. He had hardly enough of a mouth to make a smile with.
His left hand held the paper, and the long, skinny fingers of his right
a pen just dipped in ink.

But the king, who for weeks had scarcely known what he did, was today
so much himself as to be aware that he was not quite himself; and the
moment he saw the paper, he resolved that he would not sign without
understanding and appr