He could not, he said, put up with a water-drinker; and King Leopold would touch no wine.

"What's that you're drinking, sir ?" he asked him one day at dinner.

"Water, sir." "God damn it, sir!" was the rejoinder.

"Why don't you drink wine?
I never allow anybody to drink water at my table." It was clear that before very long there would be a great explosion; and in the hot days of August it came.

The Duchess and the Princess had gone down to stay at Windsor for the King's birthday party, and the King himself, who was in London for the day to prorogue Parliament, paid a visit at Kensington Palace in their absence.