. "The whole
dozen correct? Good. And now, sir," he added, turning to the Count, "I
should like to hear what _you_ have got to say."

"Allow me, sire," interrupted Marshal Federhelm, as Count Ruprecht
seemed content to smile blandly. "His Excellency no doubt intended to
afford your Majesties a little harmless diversion."

"That was all," said the Count. "This is a magic sack which has the
property of turning anything inside it into whatever its owner wishes. I
thought it might amuse you."

"Liar!" struck in Clarence. "You wouldn't have said a word about it but
for Ruby! You meant to take those pumpkins--I mean _pages_--away with
you. You _know_ you did! I don't know what the Guv'nor and Mater think
of it--but I consider myself it was a confounded liberty!"

"Well, well," said the King, "it was a mistake no doubt. But there's
been no harm done, so perhaps we'd better leave it at that--for the
present, you know, for the present."

But the Court Chamberlain could not allow such an opportunity to escape
him. "Forgive me, sire," he said eagerly, "but your Majesties are
evidently unacquainted with his Excellency's family history. The motive
for his indiscretion will perhaps be better understood when I mention
that his parents' title was formerly Bubenfresser, and that they were
executed by command of the late King as being notorious ogres."

"So _that_ was his game, was it?" cried Clarence. "Bagged our pages,
meaning to gobble 'em up when he got 'em home! Am I to have an Ogre for
a brother-in-law?"

At this there was a general cry of horror.

"Marshal," said the King, "you must have known all about this--and you
gave that fellow an excellent character!"

"I had no reason to believe otherwise, sire," replied the ex-Regent
smoothly. "He had been brought up as a strict vegetarian, and I cannot
think that, if he had not acquired a taste for meat at your Majesty's
table, he would ever have developed these--er--hereditary proclivities."

"He hasn't developed them!" declared Edna. "It's false! Ruprecht, deny
it! Tell them you are no Ogre!"

"Really, ma'am," said the Duchess to Queen Selina, "I must ask your
permission to leave the table. I don't feel as if I ought to be present
at a family dispute of this intimate nature."

"Pray don't go, my dear Duchess!" the Queen implored her. "Not till
you've heard what the Count has to say."

The Count rose and folded his arms in proud defiance. "I'm not an Ogre,"
he said sulki