Something in my voice must have startled him, for he looked up sharply, and hesitated.
"Tell me," I said again.
"It is Princess Irma, your Majesty."
"How was she insulted and by whom?"
"In an article in a paper, may I give it to your Majesty to read?"
"Have you it with you?"
"It is here, your Majesty."
He pulled a paper from the front of his tunic and handed it to me.
I turned aside to one of the windows and read. It was just one of those filthy articles which hint at scandalous behaviour; articles that are far more injurious than outspoken libel. There was nothing which could be shown up as untrue, but a number of vague hints at scandal which so many people gloat over, and remember to regale their friends with. The kind of article that causes the sales manager of a paper to rub his hands gleefully.
I read the thing twice; and, by that time, I was in such a rage that had the writer been in the room I should have tried to kill him.