r returns to-morrow----"

"Stop," said the Fairy, "I must have time to think over that." She had,
it is true, renounced all further interference in anybody's affairs, but
habit was too strong for her. Her old brain was busying itself once more
with the scheme she had abandoned--a scheme that would certainly not be
assisted by Daphne's expulsion from Maerchenland. So she temporised.

"Yes," she said at last, "I quite see from what you tell me, that Lady
Daphne cannot remain at Court any longer. The difficulty is that I can't
send her back to England just yet. My storks will not be fit for so long
a flight again for a fortnight at the very least. I'm not going to have
them killed on her account. I could do _this_ for you. I could establish
her in a little pavilion in a distant part of the palace grounds and
keep her there, under my own eyes, till the storks are ready for another
journey. It's a very secluded place--almost a wilderness--and none of
the Court ever go near it."

"That seems an excellent plan," said the Queen. "But I shouldn't care
for them to know that she is a prisoner. They had better be told that
she has resigned her situation and left the Palace. And--you won't
forget my little hint--about Prince Mirliflor, you know?"

"I will bear it in mind. In fact, if you can spare me for a day or two,
I thought of going over to Clairdelune in the dove-chariot to-morrow and
having a little chat with him."

"Oh, by all means do!" said the Queen gratefully. "So kind of you to
take so much trouble!"

"It's more on his account than yours," replied the Fairy, with a candour
that might have been intended as complimentary. "But I don't guarantee
that anything will come of it--at all events for a considerable time."

"Indeed I quite understand that--that his wound can hardly be expected
to heal just yet."

The Fairy lost no time in conveying Daphne to the secret pavilion
without the knowledge of any of the Court. It was quite fit for
occupation, and supplied with all that was necessary for comfort; the
Court Godmother provided her with an attendant, and even procured some
ancient volumes of Maerchenland history with which Daphne could beguile
her solitude.

That night the Court Godmother summoned up all her energies to send
Mirliflor another vision of Daphne. It was the best vision she had ever
transmitted, but it was terribly exhausting work, and she grumbled
bitterly to herself that the scheme she had in hand sho