“Tell me how to speak to him!”
“We call him Sir John. In his island kingdom they call him Rajah John. He is the second of his dynasty. The people of the realm very charmingly invited his father to rule over them. He lives in a stucco palace of the most monstrous taste. He would prefer to live on his estate in England, but one must rule a kingdom whether one wants to or not.”
“Is he married?”
“Aha!” He turned round upon her suddenly. “I see that I should not have brought you here to-day. He is not, and it might take only the tiniest twist of fate to-day to make you a queen in the East. But please to remember that maybe some of the rest of us can win kingdoms, too. I implore of you not to let that prophecy drop out of your mind.”
Ellis Wilbur entered the sala with a pleasant faced, deeply browned young Englishman. Upon being presented to Julie he looked at her admiringly, which caused Ellis to cry out:
“King John has lived so long in polygamous countries that he has imbibed their inspirations, I perceive. After assigning me first chance at his kingdom, he is casting pleasantly encouraging glances elsewhere!”
Isabel, Chad, Commissioner Caples and several young Englishmen that Barry had asked to meet his guest strolled in. Commissioner Caples demonstrated an unpleasantly prophetic mood. The business pulse, he said, was the sure indication of what was going to transpire; the big concerns were withdrawing their capital from the islands faster than ever. People who had invested in the chimera would lose everything, for Independence was imminent.
At this Julie saw Isabel’s eyes blaze with ecstasy.
“Great pity!” Sir John commented. “I’ll miss your Experiment to the North. I was planning things myself—along the same lines. Tell me,”—he turned to address Isabel—“what will happen to the poor tao, lumbering after his carabao in the jungle, I say what will become of him then?”
“He has just about as much brains as his carabao,” Isabel contemptuously flashed. “It isn’t necessary to concern oneself with a carabao’s fate.”