bles, chairs, carpets and beds, they must, he thought, have left
behind, because the Megalian Navy was not big enough to carry very
much cargo. But Miss Daisy took no risks. She bought everything
necessary for a house of moderate size, and had the packing cases put
into the hold of the _Ida_.

She gave large orders for every kind of portable provisions. She
entrusted a wine merchant with the duty of stocking the royal cellars.
Certain dressmakers--eight, I believe--were kept busy. The new queen
did not actually purchase royal robes; but she got every other kind
of clothes from the most fantastic teagowns to severe costumes
designed for mountaineering. There might be a mountain in Salissa. The
Queen liked to be prepared for it if it were there.

She engaged a staff of servants, hitting on twenty as a suitable
number for the household of a queen of a small state. The chief of
this band was a dignified man who had once been butler to a duke. Miss
Daisy gave him the title of major domo, and provided him with a thick
gold chain to hang round his neck. There were alterations to be made
in the _Ida_, a steamer not originally intended to carry passengers.
These were left to Steinwitz; but Miss Daisy managed to run down every
day to see that the work was being done as quickly as possible. She
had interviews with Captain Wilson, who commanded the _Ida_, and Mr.
Maurice Phillips, the first officer. She asked them both to dinner.
Captain Wilson, a Scot, was taciturn and suspicious. He regarded the
job before him as an objectionable kind of practical joke, likely,
before it was over, to impair his natural dignity. Mr. Phillips was
filled with delight at the prospect. He was a young man with curly
fair hair and cheerful eyes.

The start might have been made in even less than three weeks, if it
had not been for the Heralds' Office. Miss Daisy wanted a banner to
hoist over the royal palace in Salissa. She consulted Gorman, and
gathered from what he told her that heralds are experts in designing
banners. She found her way to the office and explained what she
wanted to a suave, but rather anaemic young gentleman who talked about
quarterings. Miss Daisy was not to be cowed by jargon.

"Put in any quarterings you fancy," she said. "I'm not particular. If
ghules, argents and ramparts are extra, I am prepared to pay. But
don't you meditate too much on the unforgotten glories of the past.
Get a move on."

That it appeared was the one th