to-morrow."

"A competition," said Belvane, gazing vaguely over Hyacinth's head.
"Some sort of a money prize," she added, as if in a trance.

"There should certainly be some sort of a prize," agreed the Princess.
(Why not, she asked herself, if one is to encourage literature?)

"Bags of gold," murmured Belvane to herself. "Bags and bags of gold.
Big bags of silver and little bags of gold." She saw herself tossing
them to the crowd.

"Well, we'll go into that to-morrow," said Hyacinth hastily.

"I have it all drawn up here," said Belvane. "Your Royal Highness has
only to sign. It saves _so_ much trouble," she added with a disarming
smile. . . . She held the document out--all in the most beautiful
colours.

Mechanically the Princess signed.

"Thank you, your Royal Highness." She smiled again, and added, "And
now perhaps I had better see about it at once." The Guardian of
Literature took a dignified farewell of her Sovereign and withdrew.

Hyacinth looked at Wiggs in despair.

"There!" she said. "That's me. I don't know what it is about that
woman, but I feel just a child in front of her. Oh, Wiggs, Wiggs, I
feel so lonely sometimes with nothing but women all around me. I wish
I had a man here to help me."

"Are _all_ the men fighting in _all_ the countries?"

"Not all the countries. There's--Araby. Don't you remember--oh, but
of course you wouldn't know anything about it. But Father was just
going to ask Prince Udo of Araby to come here on a visit, when the war
broke out. Oh, I wish, I _wish_ Father were back again." She laid
her head on her arms; and whether she would have shed a few royal
tears or had a good homely cry, I cannot tell you. For at that moment
an attendant came in. Hyacinth was herself again at once.

"There is a messenger approaching on a horse, your Royal Highness,"
she announced. "Doubtless from His Majesty's camp."

With a shriek of delight, and an entire lack of royal dignity, the
Princess, followed by the faithful Wiggs, rushed down to receive him.

Meanwhile, what of the Countess? She was still in the Palace, and,
more than that, she was in the Throne Room of the Palace, and, more
even than that, she was on the Throne, of the Throne Room of the
Palace.

She couldn't resist it. The door was open as she came down from her
interview with the Princess, and she had to go in. There was a woman
in there, tidying up, who looked questioningly at Belvane as she
entere