eck and one right aft. She had a smart,
well-cared-for look, as if she were a yacht, or belonged to some navy.
But she was very old. Gorman says that she reminded him of the
pictures of the royal yacht in which Queen Victoria came to Ireland to
open Kingstown harbour at the very beginning of her reign. She was a
paddle steamer. She had an exaggerated form of fiddle bow, a long
bowsprit and two tall masts on which sails might easily have been set.

Gorman is nothing of a sailor and is almost totally uninterested in
ships. This steamer must have been very old-fashioned indeed to have
struck him as being odd. She arrived in the harbour at midday and
splashed about a good deal with her paddles as if she were rather
pleased with herself and thought she had a right to the admiration of
the islanders. There was only one modern thing about her. The
splayed-out wires of a Marconi installation stretched between her
masts.

Gorman was sitting with Donovan when the steamer arrived. They had
spent a pleasant hour discussing, in a desultory manner, whether a
nation gains or loses by having a titled aristocracy. Donovan
preferred the British to the American system. Statesmen, he pointed
out, must make some return to the rich for the money which they
provide to keep politics going. It is on the whole better to give
titles than to alter tariffs in return for subscriptions to party
funds. The subject was not a very interesting one and both men were
pleased when the arrival of the steamer gave them a new topic.

"Seems to me," said Donovan, "that Daisy might gather in some revenue
by charging harbour dues. This is the second ship, not reckoning the
_Ida_, which has put in here since I arrived."

"I don't know that flag," said Gorman. "Not that that means anything.
I don't suppose there are half a dozen flags that I do know."

"There was some mention made of an Emperor," said Donovan. "Daisy
seemed to think that one might come nosing round, thinking to buy the
island. Perhaps that's him."

"Hardly in that steamer," said Gorman. "She looks as if she'd been
built a hundred years ago. One of the first ever launched, I should
think."

"Well," said Donovan, "I'm not an expert in the habits of European
Emperors; but I've always been told that the state coach in which the
King of England goes to open Parliament dates back quite a bit in the
matter of shape. An Emperor might feel that he owed it to his historic
past to sail the ocean in t