dinary thing," said the King, after they had sat
down to lunch in the hall with the malachite columns, "a most
extraordinary thing, that, when we have company like this, there should
be no more than six pages to wait on us! We generally have at least a
dozen. What's become of all the rest of you?" he asked a page.

"I cannot say, sire," answered the boy. "They were waiting in the
courtyard to receive His Excellency the Count, but have not yet
returned."

King Sidney told the Court Chamberlain to send for them at once, but the
messenger returned with the information that the missing pages were
nowhere to be seen.

"Must have run off before I arrived," said the Count, laughing
boisterously. "Played truant, the young rascals!"

The Fairy, however, recollected Daphne's story of the sack, and was
seized with suspicion. Was it possible that the royal pages--? If so,
she felt something ought to be done--though not by her. She was too
cautious an old person to take unnecessary risks, and decided to employ
a deputy.

"Ruby, my child," she whispered to the little Princess, who was sitting
next to her, "I believe the Count has brought a present for you. It's in
a sack in his coach. Ask him what it is."

"I don't want to know," objected Ruby, "I wouldn't take any present from
_him_--except Tuetzi, perhaps."

"I may be wrong," said the Court Godmother, "perhaps it isn't for you
after all. But I'm sure it would make him very uncomfortable if you
asked him, before everybody, what he happens to have in that sack of
his."

"If I was sure of that," said Ruby, "I'd ask him like a shot!"

"You may depend on it. And more than that, Lady Daphne is particularly
anxious to know."

"Oh, if _Miss Heritage_ wants me to, all right!" said Ruby. "I say,
Count Rubenfresser," she called across the table, "I want to ask you
something."

"If it's a riddle, little Princess," replied the Count, with his mouth
full, "I give it up beforehand."

"It isn't a riddle. It's this: What have you got inside that sack?"

"Sack?" said the Count blankly. "I don't understand. I have no sack
here."

"I don't mean here. I mean the sack that's inside your coach."

"Ruby, my dear," interposed her mother, "you mustn't be so inquisitive.
It's very rude."

"I know he has got a sack there, Mummy," insisted Ruby, "and I do want
to know what he's got in it."

"Hear me rag my precious brother-in-law," said Clarence aside to Lady
Muscombe. "A sack, eh?" he