THE KING
rather a jaunty manner, he said, "May I smoke?" Without waiting for my reply he took out a cigarette case, struck a match, lighted a good large cigarette, and smoked.
I had forgotten the clock. With a start I noted the hour, and with my usual and fatal conscientiousness, kept looking at it at short intervals in order not to allow the minute hand to overrun the twenty-minute mark by a hair's breadth, I was sketching nervously and timidly, the King was talking and puffing at his cigarette, and the clock was ticking. I was asked all about the sketch, what it was for, who had ordered it, and if I had begun it from a photograph before coming to the Palace. "You see," he said, "I have so little time to give to each of the many sittings required of me, that the artists paint in a head from a photograph at home first, and bring it here in a proper state to work on from me. That gives them a chance of doing something." He seemed surprised that I had not brought an unfinished drawing. The minute hand of the clock had fallen over two minute marks, as they sometimes do on their downward course from three to four, and it was fast approaching four, which was the limit of the twenty minutes. We talked on, but the next time I looked at the clock I became confused, for the hour and the minute hand had merged into one, and after that I could not tell one from the other. This was all to my advantage, because the hour hand remained a little after three, while the minute hand went marching on. But the confusion of mind sadly interfered with my work, and presently, when the minute hand did clearly stand upon four, and I knew that the time was up, I rose in despair and said, "The twenty minutes are gone." "Oh!" said the King, "that does not matter. You may go on if you wish." Plumping
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