w."

"I may have little skill," he said, "nevertheless, I have obtained
employment here as a gardener."

"I mustn't ask you questions," she said, "but I'm quite sure that,
before you came here, you were in a very different position from any
labourer's." She had noticed a refinement in his speech and manner, and
also the shapeliness of his hands, which the Fairy had been considerate
or forgetful enough to leave unaltered.

But Daphne's words gave him a sudden hope. Had she detected that he was
a Prince? If so, he was released from his promise of silence!

"All I may tell you," he said, "is that there were reasons which obliged
me to leave my own country and live here where I am unknown. But I think
you have guessed more than that already!"

"I will tell you what I think," she said. "I believe you are really a
student, and, whatever you had to leave your country for, it was nothing
you've any cause to be ashamed of. I expect you were accused of plotting
against your Government--and I don't care if you did, because you
wouldn't have if they'd governed properly. Anyway, you escaped, and
thought you'd be safe if you could get a post in the Royal Gardens.
There! it is only a guess, of course, and you needn't tell me whether
I'm right or not."

He allowed her to think she was, as it was a far more creditable
explanation than any he could have invented for himself.

"It was rather clever of me to guess all that," she said. "But it would
have been cleverer of you to choose something you knew a little more
about than gardening, wouldn't it? And we can't be strangers after this.
That thing there," and she indicated the headless serpent, which had now
ceased to writhe, and lay limp in the grass, with all its brilliant
colour faded to dingy grey, "introduced us, but it carelessly forgot to
mention our names."

"Perhaps," he said, quite seriously, "it did not know them."

"That _would_ account for it, certainly," agreed Daphne, with equal
gravity, though her eyes danced. "Then I'd better explain that I was
Princess Ruby's governess before we came here. Since then I've been a
sort of lady-in-waiting--and now I'm nothing at all. I'm in disgrace,
like you. My name is Daphne Heritage. Now, tell me yours ... Girofle?...
Well, I am going back to the Pavilion now. I don't feel safe anywhere
else.... Yes, you can see me out of this dreadful place--just in _case_
there should be another snake about," she conceded, for her nerves wer