ain.

"Couldn't you see Goldsturmer," he said, "and arrange with him to give
you the refusal of the pearls, say, three months from now?"

"Goldsturmer," said Madame, "is a devil. He will not trust me for one
day, although he knows Konrad well."

Goldsturmer would probably have said that he refused to trust Madame
_because_ he knew Konrad well.

Gorman promised to lay the Salissa proposal before Donovan, and to get
him, if possible, to pay at least ten thousand of the purchase money
in advance.

"But above all," said the King, "let him hold tight to his tongue,
and you, my friend Gorman. This is no affair about which a song
can be made in the market place. If the Emperor were to hear a
whisper--Gorman, you do not know the Emperor. His ears are long. If he
were to hear there would be an end. There would be no sale."

"Donovan," said Gorman, "would probably offer the Emperor five per
cent. of the purchase money if there was any trouble."

"Five per cent.!" said the King. "The Emperor! God in heaven!"

King Konrad Karl probably feared God in heaven very little. But there
is no doubt that he had a nervous dread of the Emperor.

CHAPTER V

Donovan was, I believe, relieved when he heard that he could not buy
the whole kingdom of Megalia. The price would have been enormous, but
he would not have hesitated to pay it if, by paying, he would have got
what he wanted. The more he looked into the business of kingship, the
less he liked it. The idea of Court etiquette worried him. Donovan
disliked dressing for dinner, a form of activity to which he was
unaccustomed. He got it into his head that the father of the reigning
monarch in a state like Megalia might be called on to wear uniforms,
troublesome things with unusual buttons and straps, and change them
two or three times a day. He feared that such a combination of
exertion and worry would still further disorder the action of his
heart. He saw no prospect of quiet indolence among a people which went
in for revolutions as a pastime. Salissa, on the other hand, seemed
almost an ideal spot. There were not likely to be any regular postal
arrangements. There was certainly no cable. Since there were less than
a hundred inhabitants a liberal pension could be given to each.
Pensioners are notoriously peaceful and unobtrusive people.

Miss Daisy was a little disappointed at first; but only at first. Once
she hit on the idea that her kingdom would be the "dinkiest" in
Eu