should
interest you just now."

"I--I can see something flying," explained Daphne. "It _may_ be only a
vulture--a _large_ vulture."

"A vulture--where?" cried the old Fairy. "Nonsense. It's your fancy,
child. _I_ see nothing."

"It _is_ a dragon!" faltered Daphne. "Can't you see it now? It's coming
towards us! And oh, I'm afraid the Count has sent it--like that
snake--to--to kill me!"

A dragon was a danger which the Fairy, with all her precautions, had
somehow omitted to foresee, and for a time she exhibited about as much
calmness and self-possession as a hen at a fox-raid. "Heaven preserve
us!" she wailed. "If we were but safe at Clairdelune! What can we do?"

"Hide," said Daphne, trembling. "Quick! In the undergrowth!"

"It would spy us out from above," groaned the Fairy. "No, we must run
for the Pavilion and shelter there."

Daphne seized her hand and they ran together, but they had not gone far
before the Court Godmother suddenly collapsed. "My old legs fail me!"
she said, "I can go no further! Run on, child, while you can!"

"And leave you!" cried Daphne. "No, I shan't do that! But oh, can't you
do _anything_ to save us! Think!"

The Fairy rose to her feet, shaking all over. "I knew a spell once," she
mumbled. "I never tried it--but if I could only remember it now, it
might--But I can't--I'm too old--too old! That all my plans should have
come to _this_!"

The dragon was forging along at a tremendous pace. It would soon be near
enough to single out its prey--and still the old Fairy stood there,
racking her memory in vain.

Close upon noon Mirliflor had thrown away his hoe and torn off his apron
for ever. In a few minutes more he would be with his love--and yet his
heart was oppressed by a certain fear that had been haunting him all the
morning. The Fairy would re-transform him--but could he be sure of the
effect on Daphne? What if he lost, as Mirliflor, the love that Girofle
had won? He was so absorbed in these disquieting reflections, as he
alternately hastened and checked his pace down the broad walks, that he
scarcely noticed a faint outcry, and sounds as though firearms were
being discharged, which seemed to come from the Palace behind him.
Perhaps, he thought, a revolt had broken out, but, if so, it did not
concern _him_. His Daphne was in no danger in those grounds beyond the
wall. He passed through the gate, and presently came to the astrolabe,
and then the stone bench, both hallowed now by t