Major
Calhoun emphatically had ordered her to rejoin her aunt and start for
America at once. Yesterday Beverly would have begun packing for the trip
home. Now she was eager to remain in Graustark indefinitely. She was so
thrilled by joy and excitement that she scarcely could hold the pen.
"Father says the United States papers are full of awful war scares from
the Balkans. Are we a part of the Balkans, Yetive?" she asked of Yetive,
with a puzzled frown, emphasizing the pronoun unconsciously. "He says
I'm to come right off home. Says he'll not pay a nickel of ransom if the
brigands catch me, as they did Miss Stone and that woman who had the
baby. He says mother is worried half to death. I'm just going to cable
him that it's all off. Because he says if war breaks out he's going to
send my brother Dan over here to get me. I'm having Aunt Josephine send
him this cablegram from St. Petersburg: 'They never fight in
Balkans. Just scare each other. Skip headlines, father dear. Will be
home soon. Beverly.' How does that sound? It will cost a lot, but he
brought it upon his own head. And we're not in the Balkans, anyway. Aunt
Joe will have a fit. Please call an A. D. T. boy, princess. I want to
send this message to St. Petersburg."
When Candace entered the princess's boudoir half an hour later, she was
far from being the timid youth who first came to the notice of the
Graustark cabinet.
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