"Very well," said the gentleman (who, thought Alec, must be the Duke's butler). "But have you got the fee?-the half-crown you must pay for the search?"
"A half-crown's very dear," said Alec. "Can't you do it for less?"
The gentleman looked at them with kindly eyes. "I dare say I can," he replied, putting his hand in his pocket, and rattling some coins. "But I'm afraid you'll have to pay a shilling. The King wants one." They paid their shilling for the King; watched while the gentleman looked up his records, and followed him into the corridor as he prosecuted his search. At last he said—
"Quite right. Born on the fifth of November: year's all right. It's all in order."
"Then Father is twenty-one?" queried both boys doubtfully.
Molly hopped on one foot in suppressed excitement.
"Your father!" exclaimed the kindly clerk, handing back the coin. "Why, how old are you?"
"Ten," replied Alec. "Thank you."
"And so your father married at the age of ten or thereabouts, did he? Dear me; very precocious of him!" exclaimed the clerk, with such a serious face that the children felt quite uncomfortable. They had not considered the matter in that light at all. Their faces fell, and they felt such a wish they had never come that without a word of explanation they turned and fled. They were glad to be once more outside the building, and thankful to find the cabman still there waiting to take them back, and in their discomfiture he was hailed by them joyfully as a dear old friend.
"Home!" said Alec, when they were inside.