Please help! What inference can you make about the following exchange between Arthur and Merlyn?

“That’s better,” he said, and sat down comfortably on a carpet chest.
“Stand up,” said Arthur, and he clapped his hands for a page to take away the seat.
Merlyn stood up, boiling with indignation. The whites of his knuckles blanched as he clenched them.
“About our conversation on the subject of chivalry,” began the king in an airy tone.