When they were gone, my Lord Danby turned to the King, with a kind of indignation.
"Your Majesty may be pleased to make a mock of it all; but your loving subjects cannot. I have permission then to examine these papers, and report to Your Majesty?"
"Why, yes," said the King, "so you do not inflict the forty-three heads upon me. I have one of my own which I must care for."
My Lord said no more; he gathered his papers without a word, saluted the King at a distance, still without speaking, and went out, giving me a sharp glance as he went.
"Now, Mr. Mallock," said His Majesty, "sit you down and listen to me."
I sat down; but I was all bewildered as to why I had been sent for. What had I to do with such affairs as these?
"Do you know of a man called Grove?" the King asked me suddenly.
Now the name had meant nothing to me when I had heard it just now; but when it was put to me in this way I remembered. I was about to speak, when he spoke again.
"Or Pickering?" he said.
"Sir; a man called Grove is known to me; but no Pickering."