to the table. "I am already so grateful that I hesitate to ask an
additional favour. Yet it is but troubling you to add a few strokes
of the pen, and it will not materially affect the sentence itself."

He glanced at me, and his brows drew together as he sought to guess
my meaning.

"Well, man, what is it?" he demanded impatiently.

"It has occurred to me that this poor Vicomte, in a strange land,
alone, among strange faces, missing the loved ones that for so many
years he has seen daily by his side, will be pitiably lonely."

The King's glance was lifted suddenly to my face. "Must I then
banish his family as well?"

"All of it will not be necessary, Your Majesty."

For once his eyes lost their melancholy, and as hearty a burst of
laughter as ever I heard from that poor, weary gentleman he vented
then.

"Ciel! what a jester you are! Ah, but I shall miss you!" he cried,
as, seizing the pen, he added the word I craved of him.

"Are you content at last?" he asked, returning the paper to me.

I glanced at it. The warrant now stipulated that Madame la
Vicomtesse de Lavedan should bear her husband company in his exile.