"I thought you said Udo was."
"They both are."
"Then how simple. We simply kill Udo, and—and—well, anyhow, there's one part of it done."
"Yes, but what about the other part?"
Coronel thought for a moment.
"Would it be simpler if we did it the other way around?" he said. "Killed the Countess and put Udo in his place."
"Father wouldn't like that at all, and he's coming back to-morrow."
Coronel didn't quite see the difficulty. If the King was in love with the Countess, he would marry her whatever Hyacinth did. And what was the good of putting her in her place for one day if her next place was to be on the throne.
Hyacinth guessed what he was thinking.
"Oh, don't you see," she cried, "she doesn't know that the King is coming back to-morrow. And if I can only just show her—I don't mind if it's only for an hour—that I am not afraid of her, and that she has got to take her orders from me, then I shan't mind so much all that has happened these last weeks. But if she is to have disregarded me all the time, if she is to have plotted against me from the very moment my father went away, and if nothing is to come to her for it but that she marries my father and becomes Queen of Euralia, then I can have no pride left, and I will be a Princess no longer."