At that moment, Judith knocked at the bedroom door.
"Good morning, Alfred. The bathroom is yours, and the Imps, if you don't mind having them with you, and letting them have a splash," she called out cheerily. "But no flood in the passage, this morning, mind! Breakfast in half an hour, on the verandah. We shall be by ourselves. Uncle Bond has had another bad night. 'Cynthia' has failed him again. He daren't face eggs and bacon in public, he says. Hurry up, Imps. Big sponge, floating soap, and bath towels, at the double."
"I'm first!" Button shrieked, making a wild dive for the door.
"I'd rather be last!" Bill explained, quite unconcerned, lingering to give the King a final hug.
"If I'm last, I shall be able to float 'Ironclad Willie,' and 'Snuffles,' shan't I? They haven't had a swim—for ever so long—poor dears."
'Ironclad Willie,' and 'Snuffles,' were a large china fish, and a small china duck, which Bill sometimes forgot, and sometimes remembered at bath time.
A hilarious, crowded, half hour followed. It was a half hour lit up, for the King, by the blended innocence and mischief which shone in the Imps' eyes, a half hour set to music for him by the Imps' gurgling chuckles, and radiant, childish laughter. First came the bathroom, where the Imps splashed and twisted in the bath, their brown, wriggling little bodies as lithe and supple as those of young eels; where Bill, lost in a huge bath towel, demanded assistance in drying all the back places and corners; where Button solemnly lathered his chin, just as Uncle Alfred lathered his chin; where Bill was, for one terrible moment, in imminent peril of his life, as he grabbed at the case of shining razors. Then came the bedroom again, where odd, queer-shaped little garments had to be turned right side out, and buttons and strings had to be fastened, and tied. Innocency, fearlessness, trust, mischief, and laughter were inextricably mingled in it all, with laughter predominating, the radiant laughter of the happy child, ignorant of evil.
All this was all as it had always been, and, for that reason, it all made a more poignant appeal, than ever before, this morning, to the King.
Breakfast was served, as Judith had promised, out on the sunlit verandah.
One glance at Judith, as he approached the breakfast table, assured the King that it was the old Judith with whom he had to deal.