She stood before him, heaving perceptibly.
"Your manner is most insulting," she declared. She had expected to be
showered with compliments, and here was this giggling stranger advising
her to be thin! She toddled over to the door and pushed a bell. Then she
turned upon the bewildered stranger and remarked coldly: "Unless you
have something further to communicate, you may consider this interview
at an end."
A servant appeared in the doorway.
"Show this person out," said the portly princess.
The servant gave a little scream.
"Mr. Pike!"
"Kalora!"
And then he was holding both her hands.
"You are _here_--here in Morovenia? You came all the way?"
"All the way! I'd have come ten times as far. Before I left New York I
heard about all those messenger boys hunting me around the hotels, but I
didn't know what it meant. When I got back to Washington I found your
note, and, as soon as I could get Congress calmed down, I started--got
in here last night."
"But why did you come?"
[Illustration: "Mr. Pike!" "Kalora!"]
"Can't you guess?" Mr. Pike wasted no time in circumlocution.
During this hurried interview Jeneka had been holding a determined thumb
against the electric button. The Governor-General, waiting impatiently
up the hallway, heard the prolonged buzzing and came to investigate.
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