She wept copiously.
Gorman could feel drops which he supposed to be tears trickling down
the inside of his sleeve. The King seized his other hand and shook it
heartily.

"It is now as good as done," he said. "Let us drink to success. I ring
the bell. I order champagne, one bottle, two bottles, three, many
bottles in the honour of my friend Sir Gorman who has said: 'Damn it,
I will.'"

Under the influence of the second bottle of champagne the King escaped
from his heroic mood. Gorman began to realize that a certain cunning
lay behind the preposterous proposal he had listened to.

"I shall inform the Emperor," said the King, "that you go to Salissa
to arrange according to his wish. I shall say: 'M.P. Count Sir Gorman
goes. He is a statesman, a financier, a diplomat, a man of uncommon
sense.' The Emperor will then be satisfied."

"He'll probably be very dissatisfied when I come back," said Gorman.

"That will be--let me consider--perhaps eight weeks. In eight weeks
many things may happen. And if not, still Corinne and I will have had
eight weeks in Paris with oof which we can burn. It is something."

CHAPTER XIII

In the end Gorman made up his mind to go to Salissa. I do not suppose
that the King's gift of the Order of the Pink Vulture had much to do
with his decision. Nor do I think that he went out of pure kindness of
heart, in order to give Konrad Karl and Madame Ypsilante eight weeks
of unalloyed delight in Paris. I know that he never had the slightest
intention of trying to persuade Donovan to part with the island,
and--Gorman has not much conscience, but he has some--nothing would
have induced him to suggest a marriage between Miss Daisy and the
disreputable King. He went to Salissa because that island seemed in a
fair way to become a very interesting place.

On the very evening of Gorman's dinner with the King I happened to
meet Sir Bartholomew Bland-Potterton at another, a much duller dinner
party. Sir Bartholomew was not yet Secretary of State for Balkan
Problems, but he was well known as an authority on the Near East, and
was in constant unofficial touch with the Foreign Office. He is a big
man in his way, and I was rather surprised when he buttonholed me
after the ladies had left the room. I am not a big man in any way.

"Do you happen to know a man called Gorman?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, "Michael Gorman. I've met him. In fact, I know him
pretty well."

"Nationalist M.P.?"

"Sits for Up