bowed in respectful silence--"And yet I have scarcely glanced at these
papers! All the same, I have not been idle--I have been thinking."

Sir Roger de Launay, a tall handsome man, with an indefinable air of
mingled good-nature and lassitude about him which suggested the
possibility of his politely urging even Death itself not to be so much
of a bore about its business, smiled doubtfully. "Is it a wise
procedure, Sir?" he enquired--"Conducive to comfort I mean?"

The King laughed.

"No--I cannot say that it is! But thought is a tonic which sometimes
restores a man's enfeebled self-respect. I was beginning to lose that
particular condition of health and sanity, Roger!--my self-respect was
becoming a flaccid muscle--a withering nerve;--but a little thought-
exercise has convinced me that my mental sinews are yet on the whole
strong!"

Sir Roger offered no reply. His eyes expressed a certain languid
wonderment; but duty being paramount with him, and his immediate errand
being to remind his sovereign of an appointment then about due, he
began to collect the writing materials scattered about on the table and
put them together for convenient removal. The smile on the King's face
deepened as he watched him.

"You do not answer me, De Launay,"--he resumed, "You think perhaps that
I am talking in parables, and that my mind has been persuaded into a
metaphysical and rambling condition by an hour's contemplation of the
sunlight on the sea! But come now!--have you not yourself felt a
longing to break loose from the trammels of conventional routine,--to