If I were the right sort of man?  The question has always set me wondering.  The man who never doubts that he is the right sort of man may be put down as all bad, though the right sort of man is not necessarily all good.

CHAPTER VII

THE EYE OF THE DRAGON

One morning, a week or more after my visit to my uncle’s house, with Frances, she came to my closet in the Wardrobe greatly excited, and told me that a sheriff had come to take her to one of the London courts of law.

“Here is the paper he gave me,” she said, handing me a document which proved to be a subpoena.  “I have committed no crime, and I can’t imagine what it all means.”

After examining the subpoena, I explained:  “You are wanted merely as a witness before a jury of inquiry engaged in investigating a crime of some sort.  It may be Hamilton’s fight at the Old Swan, or it may be the Roger Wentworth affair.  Perhaps some one is trying to fix that awful crime on Hamilton.  But I tell you, Frances, he is innocent.”

I had not, at that time, explained to her that Hamilton and Churchill were two hundred yards behind Crofts and his friends when the robbery was committed, having felt that it was just as well not to make Hamilton’s innocence too clear.

We of the court considered ourselves exempt from processes of this sort while in the palace.  Therefore I carried the paper to the king, whom I found at cards in his closet.

“What is it, Clyde?” asked his Majesty.

For answer, I handed him the subpoena, and when he had glanced over it, he returned it to me, saying:—­

“Please tell the sheriff for me that Mistress Jennings will appear before the court of inquiry this afternoon at two o’clock.”

“It is a disagreeable business for a lady, your Majesty,” I remarked, bowing.  “But if it is your desire—­”

“Yes, yes, Clyde!  Come with me,” he interrupted, leading me out of the room to a corridor.  “You see it is this way.  We of the palace have so frequently set the law at defiance of late that the citizens are beginning to grumble.  In this instance I should like to make a great show of compliance.  We’ll make it easy for your cousin by going with her.  And Clyde, if you will say to the duchess for me that I should deem it a favor if she and one or more of her ladies will accompany us, I doubt not she will be glad to go.”

“But, your Majesty, what has my cousin done that she should be dragged before the courts of law?” I asked, pretending ignorance of the real nature of the summons and hoping to ascertain whether the king knew anything about the present occasion.

I gained the information I wanted when he replied instantly:  “Oh, she is not to be tried.  She has done nothing.  She is called only to be questioned concerning a crime now under investigation.”  Then hedging quickly, “That is, I suppose such is the purpose of the subpoena.”