said the Queen, "but I intend him to marry Miss
Heritage."

"Mother!" exclaimed Edna, "Miss Heritage! What _can_ you be thinking
of?"

"I know what I am doing, my love. The poor boy is devoted to her and
always has been, and, in short, I've decided that he shall have his way.
It will be to your advantage that he should."

On reflection Edna saw this. Mirliflor might feel mortified for a time,
but there was at least a chance of catching him on the rebound.

When Clarence returned later his entrance was hailed with an
interrogatory "Well?" from his family. "Well," he replied, "I
interviewed the old King. Told him you couldn't stick my marrying his
daughter. He took it very quietly--better than I expected. All he said
was that, if you would come to the big fountain in the Palace gardens
(it's supplied from the Crystal lake, you know) at sunset, he'd be there
and let you know his terms."

"Wants to blackmail us, does he?" said the King. "He won't get a
farthing out of _me_!"

"It is like his impudence," added the Queen. "Still, it may be as well
to see him."

And just before the sun's final disappearance, the four stood on the
margin of a small artificial lake, from the centre of which a great
column of water shot up to a colossal height against the crimson and
orange sky.

"He doesn't seem to have kept his appointment," said the King. "Thought
better of it, hey?" As he spoke, the tall column sank and resolved
itself into a solid grey-green figure of little above the average
stature, a long-bearded elderly personage in a flowing mantle which only
partially covered his suit of glittering iridescent scales.

"There _is_ the old blighter!" whispered Clarence. "This is my Father
and Mother, Sir," he added aloud, "and anything you've got to propose
must be settled with _them_."

"O King and Queen of Maerchenland!" said the Lake King, in a voice like
the roar of a cataract, "is it true that ye consider a daughter of mine
unworthy to wed your son?"

"Without entering into personalities," replied King Sidney, "which are
better avoided at all times, I may say that an alliance with a family
whose nature is so--er--amphibious could not be seriously entertained by
any civilised monarch."

"It would be _too_ grotesque!" said Queen Selina, "even in a country
like _this_!"

"I have set my heart on becoming the Father-in-law of a Prince of the
Royal blood," said the Lake King, "and I will not be denied."

"Now--now--no