us, to repeat to the master every word he hears."

This was quite untrue and unjust, for Leo rarely conversed with his
father, and seldom saw him since Morpheus took his meals as well as his
woes to bed with him, as he had done at the present moment.

But the household was in revolt; the uneasiness from outside had crept
within, and there was quarrelling among the servants.

"What shall I do?" said Leo to himself. "The rain is too heavy, or I
would go out in it; but I have no place to get dry when I become soaked,
and I can't go to bed in the daytime, as my father does. I wonder what
he'd say if I went to him? Probably this: 'You have given wings to the
finest of rhymes, and spoiled the turn of an exquisite verse; now, sir,
what atonement can you make for so great an injury? It's the world's
loss, remember.' That's the way it always is when I disturb him.
Heigh-ho! what a dull day!"

"A very dull day indeed, your highness."

Leo started, his yawn ending abruptly, and he turned more quickly than
he had ever done in his life towards the sound which saluted him. Surely
he had been alone. Who ever came to this corridor? He looked up and down
its dingy length, but saw no one. He must have been mistaken. Then he
listened. The wind swept wailing through its accustomed approaches;
shutters and windows shook with the blast, but no footfall was to be
heard. He turned to the diamond-paned lattice, and again watched the
drops trickling from the nose of the water-spout. No one had spoken.
Again he yawned prodigiously, but brought his jaws together with a snap
which might have damaged his teeth; for, to his great surprise, a voice