"I'm not. I am simply being arbitrary and dictatorial. You solve it, pig. And bring me diamonds."
"Yes, Excellency," Nob said, bowing low. "Diamonds. But the people—"
"I love the people. But to hell with them!" she cried, fire in her eyes.
"Fine, fine," Nob said, and bowed his way out of the room.
Jusa stood for a few moments in thought, then picked up a vase and shattered it on the floor. She made a mental note to order several dozen more.
Then she flung herself upon the royal couch and began to weep bitterly.
She was quite a young Empress and she had the feeling of being in beyond her depth. The problems of the war and of royalty had completely ended her social life.
She resented it; any girl would.
Nob, meanwhile, left the palace and went home in his armored car. The car had been ordered to protect him against assassins, who, according to the Earth books, aimed a good deal of their plots at Prime Ministers. Nob could see no reason for this, since if he weren't Prime Minister, any one of a thousand men could do the job with equal efficiency. But he supposed it had a certain symbolic meaning.