Part 28 (1/2)
”Why, you want them bad enough,” her father admitted. ”I don't suppose we've a town of half the size in the States where we haven't both, and this a capital city too.”
”Mr. Van Decht is quite right,” Ughtred said, gravely, ”only one has always to remember that this is a very poor country, and we can't afford to pay for luxuries.”
”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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”'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 pa.s.sions with the rest of mankind,” he a.s.sured 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,”