"Well, well?" said the King rather testily, for he did not like his writing-hour to be thus disturbed, "what is it?"
"The Prime Minister wishes to see you, sir, on a matter of extreme urgency."
The King had so long been pestered by ministers on matters which they considered urgent and which he did not, that he had little patience for such pleas, coming at the wrong time.
"What about?" he inquired curtly.
The Comptroller-General, who was supposed not to know, replied discreetly but in a tone of veiled meaning, "Something in the Home Department I believe, sir. Just now, while there is no chief secretary, the Prime Minister himself is seeing to matters."
"Dear, dear!" sighed his Majesty, "I do wish he would manage to get his urgent business done at the proper time!"
"I think, sir," said the General, "that this matter is one of sufficient importance to justify a suspension of the ordinary rules." He paused, as though about to say more, but thought better of it; after all the matter did not lie within his department.
"Very well," said the King, "let him come in, then!" And in due course the Premier entered.
It was evident at a glance that he was the bearer of important, nay, even alarming, intelligence; his eye was startled and anxious, his manner full of discomposure, and without waste of a moment he opened abruptly upon the business which had brought him.
"I have come to inform your Majesty," said he, "that we have at last discovered the Princess Charlotte's whereabouts."