Tiptoeing on his bare foot, the boy glanced swiftly around the circle, and sped to the chair where Miss Lindsay sat. With a gurgling laugh he threw himself against her, and pushing her chair slightly away from the table, she put one arm around and drew him close to her. "Rex, go back with Bertha," said his mother, beckoning to the discomfited nurse who approached the table. Two little arms clung desperately, and the large blue eyes brimmed with tears, while a sweet, childish voice pleaded quaveringly: "Oh, mamma, Miss 'Vota runs away before breakfast, and I must stay with her! I'm so afraid of that awful sea--and Jonah's whale and the Devil's fish--and slimy, pollywog, wriggling things that may catch her--and please, mamma darling, you know she's just my very onliest sweetheart!" Devota leaned forward, and with the assistance of Captain Winstead lifted the boy to her lap. "Mrs. Churchill, please let me keep him. He comes in with the other sweets, and I beg for him as my one special _bonbon_. Be gracious to me, will you not? I stand sponsor for his being 'seen and not heard.'" Mrs. Churchill flushed, but instantly the Bishop raised his hand. "Governor, veto that maternal sentence of banishment." Governor Armitage smiled. "This is the first time I have ever regretted the limitations of my veto prerogative, but in recognition of Rex's indubitable taste in selection of his 'onliest sweetheart,' I ask the privilege of signing Miss Lindsay's petition for retention of her loyal lover." A tender light shone in his eloquent grey eyes, but they were fixed on the pretty boy's ruddy locks, rather than the golden head bending against his long curls. Mrs. Churchill motioned to the nurse to withdraw, and her lips twitched as she replied: "Can your Excellency, and your Reverence, magnanimously ignore the vivid object lesson, so unexpectedly illustrative of your lectures on neglected parental discipline? My young rebel would certainly prefer your inconsistent leniency to my exacting domestic code. In honor of your pet theory--that, like other distinguished doctrinaires, you both decline to practise--I must ask you all to drink a toast once offered by a cynical wit when dining at a table, which was similarly invaded by marauders from the host's nursery. I propose to drink to 'King Herod.'" She lifted her wine glass, but each guest laid a hand over theirs, and in the midst of a chorus of protests the butler approached the Governor and held out a salver on which lay two telegrams. "If you please, sir, Mr. Walton says he thinks, sir, you must see these at once." Pushing aside his untasted pink ice, Governor Armitage took the yellow envelopes, rose, bowed to his hostess, and said: "Pardon my unceremonious desertion." As he walked away, Mr. Churchill called to him: "Come back to us for coffee and cigars. We shall wait for you." He shook his head. "Thank you; no. I will join you later."