vantage to be on good terms with me." There was no mistaking
the veiled threat, and Queen Selina no longer doubted the Fairy's
abilities to carry it out. She was worsted, and her only course was to
give in gracefully.

"My _dear_ Court Godmother!" she cried, "you _quite_ misunderstood me!
I'd no wish to interfere with any of your habits--not in the very
slightest degree. All I _meant_ was that, perhaps, at your age, a more
ordinary carriage than your present ones might be--er--_safer_, you
know!"

"I am quite capable of looking after my own safety, thank you. But,
though you are our beloved Prince's daughter, you have been brought up
in ignorance of the ways of this country, so I am the more willing to
overlook treatment to which I feel sure I shall not have to draw your
attention again. And now, as we quite understand one another, my dear,
we will say no more about it. By the way, I hear you haven't sent for
any of your ladies-in-waiting this morning. How is that?"

"I--I didn't quite like to, Court Godmother. We're--well, hardly
intimate as yet. They are so reserved and distant--especially that
Princess Rapunzelhauser. But, of course, she comes of a very high
family."

"She is descended from the famous Rapunzel, whose story is no doubt
familiar to you.... No? Well, her father was a poor cottager who was
caught by an old witch stealing radishes from her garden. She let him
off on condition that he gave up to her the child his wife was
expecting. Rapunzel was the child, and in due time was claimed by the
witch, who shut her up in a lofty tower. However, she had the most
wonderful hair, so long that when she let it down from the top window it
touched the ground, and so thick that the Prince whom she subsequently
married was able to climb up by it, and make love to her."

"Now you mention it, I have some faint recollection--and so Princess
Rapunzelhauser is descended from _her_! Well, that would account
for--but Princess Goldenenfinger--something, now, she _does_ look as if
she had _some_ good blood in _her_ veins."

"The best in Maerchenland. An ancestor of hers was King of one of the
smaller Kingdoms into which the country was divided in those days. One
day when out hunting he found a woodcutter's daughter living all alone
in a hollow tree, and fell violently in love with her."

"A _woodcutter's_ daughter? Dear me! Then, of course, marriage was out
of the question."

"Not at all! they were married and had chil