"I guess those cars would pay for themselves before long, sir," Mr.
Van Decht declared.

"It is very likely," Ughtred answered. "I'm sure that if any
capitalist were disposed to undertake the commercial part of it, there
would be very little difficulty about the concession."

Mr. Van Decht rose up briskly.

"If you'll excuse me, sir," he said, "I guess I'll hail that bobby
hutch and go the round."

The King laughed.

"You are a man of business, Mr. Van Decht," he said. "Certainly, go
and help yourself to all the information you can. Sara, if you will
come up with me I will show you the palace. I am afraid there is
nothing there to interest your father, but he will have many
opportunities of seeing it. Reist, will you see if the carriage has
come?"

For a moment they were alone.

They looked into one another's eyes, and Sara laughed softly.

"Why, this is just the queerest thing in the world," she murmured.
"What will happen to me at the palace if I forget to say 'your
Majesty,' and ought I to curtsey when I speak to you?"

Ughtred smiled back at her.

"I believe," he said, "that you ought to kiss--my hand."

"Then I guess I won't," she answered. "I believe I'm democrat enough
to expect----"

"What?"

He leaned over towards her, but the sentence was never finished. Reist
stood before them, and the look on his face was a forecast of coming
trouble.

"The carriage is here, your Majesty!" he announced.

[Illustration: "'I BELIEVE,' HE SAID, 'THAT YOU OUGHT TO KISS--MY
HAND.'"]

CHAPTER XXIII

"What do I think of Theos?" Sara repeated. "I think it must be the
lost paradise of the lotus-eaters. It does not seem possible for
anything ever to happen here."

Ughtred laughed.

"We share the primitive passions with the rest of mankind," he assured
her. "We know what it is to be excited, even to be rowdy. The wear and
tear of life perhaps touches us more lightly than in your Western
cities. You see we are a rural people."

"Miss Van Decht," Reist remarked dryly, "misses perhaps the clang of
the electric cars and the factory sirens."

"It is the proverbial peace of the city amongst the mountains,"
Ughtred said. "Yet if you listen you can hear the murmur of voices in
the _cafes_, and there is a band playing in the square."

"It is all--delightful," Sara declared. "Only I wonder that you find
it possible to take life seriously here."

They were sitting out on the great stone balcony behind th