t to us?"

The King shook his head. The plan was simple. Unfortunately the world
is not big enough for the working out of really great conceptions.

"We should be pursued. They would take us by the collar. We should be
compelled to disgorge the swag."

"We should not be so compelled," said Madame. "I should at once buy
pearls and diamonds, and I should conceal them. You, Konrad, would
have nothing to disgorge."

It is certain that the King had a real affection for Madame Corinne.
Gorman called it an infatuation. No doubt he even trusted her. It is
just conceivable that he would have allowed her to wander off by
herself with several hundred thousand pounds worth of jewels while he
argued with the Emperor and Donovan and the U. S. Ambassador. But
Gorman pointed out a fatal defect in the scheme.

"I don't deny," he said, "that there's a soft spot somewhere in
Donovan. But he's not that particular kind of fool. You may take it
from me, Madame, that the price won't be paid till you have delivered
the goods. You won't get more than a few thousands in advance until
Miss Daisy is actually sitting on a throne with a gold crown on her
head."

"There is no crown in Megalia," said the King. "There never was. If
there had been it would not be there now. I should have brought it
with me when I made my scoot."

"Donovan won't bother about that point," said Gorman. "In fact, I
expect he'd buy a new crown in any case. He wouldn't like the idea of
his daughter appearing in anything second-hand. What he wants for her
is the right to wear a crown."

"That," said the King, "is exactly the pinching shoe. That she cannot
have. We are at a dying--no, a dead lock."

"Somehow," said Madame, "we must have the money. If that girl, that
miss, who is more imbecile than all other _jeunes filles_--if she
obtains that rope of pearls from Goldsturmer, those pearls which ought
to be mine, I shall go mad and take poison, very terrible poison, and
die in front of your eyes, Konrad."

With a view to showing how mad she could go if she tried, she threw
her brandy glass on the floor and hacked at it with the heel of her
shoe. The carpets in Beaufort's hotel have the softest and deepest
pile of any carpets in Europe. Madame's first two or three hacks did
no more than snap the stem of the glass. To complete its destruction
she stood up and stamped on it.

Gorman may have feared that she would trample on him next. He told me
that she really was a