Marie Pascal took a seat in the office, but at the end of ten minutes she became bored and decided to go out and get a breath of the fresh morning air. As she reached the entrance she noticed an article of clothing lying on the ground. "A woman's chemise," she exclaimed, picking it up. "The laundryman must have dropped it." Then suddenly she grew pale and retraced her steps to the office. "Good God!" she cried, leaning for support upon the back of a chair. CHAPTER VII THE KING RECEIVES The elegant attache of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs bowed, saying: "I am extremely sorry to bring your Majesty this bad news." A voice from the depth of the cushions inquired: "What bad news?" "I am telling your Majesty that it would be difficult--even impossible for you to go to the Longchamps races as you had the intention of doing." "And why not?" "The President of the Republic opens to-day the exposition at the Bagatelle Museum. If your Majesty went to the Bois de Boulogne you would run the risk of meeting him. You would then be obliged to stop and talk a few moments, but as this interview has not been foreseen and arranged for it would be very awkward." "That is true." "That is all I had to convey to your Majesty." "Let me see, what is your name, Monsieur?" "I am Count Adhemar de Candieres, your Majesty." "Well, Count, many thanks! You may retire." The Count gracefully bowed himself out and with a convulsive movement of the cushions Jerome Fandor sprang up and burst out laughing. "Ah!" he cried, "I thought that chap would never go! Your Majesty!... Sire ... the King ... pleasant names to be called when you're not accustomed to them. I've already had twenty-four hours of it, and if it goes on much longer I shall begin to think it's not a joke. "And the King himself, what's become of him ... what is Frederick-Christian II doing now ... that's something I'd like to find out." The journalist had indeed sufficient food for thought. From the dawn of New Year's Day he had gone from surprise to surprise. At first he thought he had been brought to the Royal Palace Hotel at the instigation of the King. That would have been the simple solution of the affair. The King must have realized the awkward predicament in which his companion was placed and in spite of his drunken stupor he would come to his assistance as soon as possible. As a matter of fact, Fandor had been set at liberty. The journalist therefore had waited patiently for the arrival of the King, who was unaccountably late. Then little by little it began to dawn on him that the hotel people were considering him not as a friend of the King but as the King himself! Under ordinary circumstances, he would at once have made his identity known, but against that there were now a multitude of objections. His presence in the apartment of the murdered Susy d'Orsel had created an ambiguous and disagreeable situation. Again, was the personnel of the hotel really duped by the substitution?