tell!

FLORIAN—If so, she’ll pay for it at any rate.

ALL—

(Enter King Alton Hilderbrandt.)

HILDERBRANDT—No sign of Gama yet? The regular train from Castle Adamant came in exactly on time, some fifteen minutes since. I will here in parenthesis remark, that all trains on the Alton Road invariably do come in on time. I saw it from my castle window; four sleepers, two drawing-room cars, a dining car, three reclining-chair cars and five coaches.

FLORIAN—Your liege forgets that you placed a “special” at his disposal, but still he should be here.

HILD.—’Tis true, but still it’s very odd. But, if Gama fails to put in an appearance at the Court before the sun sets, accompanied by his daughter, to whom our son was betrothed at the extreme age of one, then there will be war between Gama and ourselves. (Aside.) I dread this greeting. When last I saw Gama, twenty years ago, he was a fretful, twisted monster, with a tongue as bitter as the agents of our rival lines.

FLORIAN—(Who has been looking attentively down the track with his glasses.) But stay! I see the smoke of an approaching train. I even hear the music of its wheels, as they fly like magic o’er the glittering rails. Already it is at the station. From a private car I see somebody; guards descend, and now a bent and crippled form of human shape. It must be Gama.

HILD.—And is the Princess with him?

FLORIAN—Not unless she’s six foot three, and wears suspenders.

HILD.—Who can tell! I’ve heard that she is a whimsical sort of girl. But come! Bustle up there. Let everything be prepared. The costliest of dinners, the meanest of prison fares; the richest room in the palace, the deepest dungeon, too. For as King Gama brings his daughter, or brings her not, so shall he be treated.