"What was that you said, Lord Cecil?" asked the King, sharply.
"I was calling his lordship's attention to the champagne glasses," answered the peer, with a silly giggle.
"It is my birthday," explained the King. "You shall drink my health later on in the repast."
There was a flutter of congratulation around the table.
"How indecorous of me not to have remembered," said the Duke of Wellington, with old-fashioned courtesy.
"Many happy returns of the day," said Lady Muriel Howard, and she whisked her handkerchief coquettishly at her sovereign.
King George presided at one end of the table, and the Princess Henrietta at the other. The nobility were seated according to their rank. Lady Muriel Howard being the eldest daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, the first peer of the realm, sat on the King's right, and the Duke of Wellington in the seat of honor by the Princess. Midway down the table was a vacant chair, and it was noticed that the King glanced frequently with an air of impatience toward the door in the intervals of the carving. He preferred to carve the dinner himself. Two servants waited upon the company.
"His Majesty is out of sorts to day. He has given me only drumsticks," murmured Lady Muriel to the companion on her other side.
"Where is Mrs. Oswald Carey?" asked the monarch at last.
"Here she comes, your Majesty," said Lady Constance Percy, nodding toward the entrance.