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160 oblate spheroid. Besides, nobody asked you to. And besides that, aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" asked Steele.

"Your little superstition about hands across the water …"

He laughed. This was some new, undreamed of Beatrice Corliss today, who pleased him vastly, who set him wondering, whom after his abrupt fashion he determined to cultivate.

"If Summit City insists upon having war," he continued, "war it will be! I'll slap its pretty pink face for it, make it sorry it was ever thought of and in the end make it eat out of my hand."

Beatrice's turn for laughter and she gave it in unstinted freedom.

"The ultimatum has gone forth," she said gaily.

"You lift the embargo. …"

"But I won't. I promise you I won't."

"That settles it then. All right. Miss Haughty Queen. You'll be sorry some day …"

"Which sounds almost like a song I used to know. How does it go …"

sang Steele.

"You didn't tell me if it is to be tea or coffee?"

"Coffee, please. Well, we'll consider one matter disposed of. Another suggests itself: I need money.