and the gold flowers that would spring into bloom on tree and bush
the instant she set foot on land.

One day, late in October, about three months after Jan of Ruffluck
had first proclaimed the tidings of Glory Goldie's rise to royal
honours, the engineer saw an uncommonly large gathering of people
around the little old man. He intended to pass by with a curt
greeting, as usual, but changed his mind and stopped to see what
was going on.

At first glance he found nothing out of the ordinary, Jan was
seated upon one of the waiting stones, as usual, looking very
solemn and important. Beside him sat a tall, thin woman, who was
talking so fast and excitedly that the words fairly spurted out of
her mouth; she shook her head and snapped her eyes, her body
bending forward all the while so that by the time she had finished
speaking her face was on a level with the ground.

Engineer Boraeus immediately recognized the woman as Mad Ingeborg.
At first he could not make out what she was saying, so he turned to
a man in the crowd and asked him what all this was about.

"She's begging him to arrange for her to accompany the Empress to
Portgallia, when Her Royal Highness returns thither," the man
explained. "She has been talking to him about this for a good while
now, but he won't make her any promises."

Then the engineer had no difficulty in following the colloquy. But
what he heard did not please him, and, as he listened, the wrinkle
between his eyebrows deepened and reddened.