d as
familiar.

"This will do, Mrs. Fogleplug," pronounced the Queen. "At least it
can be _made_ to do, with a little re-arrangement. As it is, there
are none of the ordinary refinements, such as art-cushions,
cake-and-bread-and-butter stand, occasional tables, and little
silver knick-knacks, which a lady's boudoir of any pretensions to
elegance should have. Just the trifles that express the owner,
and--er--constitute Home. I must have all these provided before I can
use this as a sanctum. I should certainly have expected a Palace like
this to be furnished with more regard to comfort!"

"I should have expected a billiard-room or two," said Prince Clarence;
"but these Courtier chaps tell me they don't even know what billiards
are! Pretty sort of Palace this!"

"I think it's a perfectly lovely Palace!" Princess Ruby declared. "It
hasn't got a single piano in it anywhere! I know, because I've asked."

"I'm sorry to hear it, my dear," said her Mother, "because I
particularly wished Miss Heritage to get you on with your music; and, if
that is impossible, I shall have to consider whether I can keep her at
all."

"Oh, Mummy, you won't send her away? When you know I've never been good
with anybody before, and never _shall_ be, either!"

Queen Selina was quite alive to the advantages of retaining Daphne's
services.

"Well, Ruby," she said, "I shall allow Miss Heritage to stay on, as your
companion" (she had already seen her way to proposing a reduction of
salary), "and she can make herself generally useful to me as well."

Ruby went dancing back to Daphne. "You're not to be my governess any
more, Miss Heritage, dear," she announced, "because I shan't require one
now. But I've got Mummy to let you stay on as companion. Aren't you
glad?"

Daphne answered that she was--and she would certainly have been sorry to
leave Maerchenland quite so soon.

"And now tell me, Mr. Chamberlain--Baron Troitz, I mean," the Queen was
saying. "What time do you dine here?"

"Whenever your Majesties please," was the reply.

"All the same to us," said the King affably. "No wish to put you _out_
at all."

"Then with your permission, Sire, the Banquet will be served an hour
hence in the Banqueting Hall."

"A banquet!" cried the Queen. "I would rather we dined quietly, without
any fuss, on our first night here."

"It is the night of your Majesties' Coronation," the Court Chamberlain
reminded her. "The Court would be deeply disappointed