He leaned back, looking at me curiously.
"Sir," I said, "it is now about half-past ten o'clock. What I ask is that my cousin, Mistress Dorothy Jermyn, receives an immediate dismissal from Her Majesty's service; and is ordered to leave London with me, for her father's house, at noon."
His Majesty looked at me amazed. I think he did not know whether to be angry, or to laugh.
"Well, sir," he said at last. "That is the maddest request I have ever had. You mean what you say?"
"Certainly, Sir."
"Well: you must have it then. It is the queerest kindness I have ever done. Why do you ask it? Eh?"
"Sir; you do not want my peroration over again!"
His face darkened.
"That is very like impudence, Mr. Mallock."
"I do not mean it for such, Sir. It is the naked truth."