e to sudden illness. Otherwise there may be trouble
with the Court."

"_Execution!_" cried Queen Selina, genuinely horrified. "Good gracious
me, Marshal, you don't suppose I want the poor girl put to death, do
you? What do you take me for?"

"It would be a prudent course," he said with meaning, "for any Sovereign
to adopt in your Majesty's situation."

"For a Maerchenland Sovereign, perhaps! But _I_ have been brought up with
very different ideas. I should consider it most wicked to give orders
for anybody to be killed. That is not at _all_ what I meant in saying
that I want Miss Heritage removed."

"Then I fail to understand your Majesty."

"It's perfectly simple. I merely wish to have her sent back to England.
The Baron can take her in the Court Godmother's stork-car. She'll never
be well enough to know of it now, poor old soul! And the dear old
Baron's so devoted to Us, and has always been so anxious that Edna
should marry Mirliflor, that I know I can depend on him."

"If it should be known," said the Marshal, "that your Majesty had
banished Prince Mirliflor's chosen bride, there would be such an outcry
that it might cost you your Kingdom."

"Oh, do you really think that, Marshal? But it _is_ so essential that
she should be sent to England! Surely it can be managed somehow without
any scandal?"

"There _is_ a way, Madam, if your Majesty is prepared to take it."

"I am prepared to do anything, Marshal--that is, _almost_ anything. What
do you advise?"

"Your Majesty should inform the Baron that, the Court Godmother being
unhappily too indisposed to act as guardian to Lady Daphne, you desire
him to convey her in the stork-car to Clairdelune and place her under
the care of Prince Mirliflor."

"But, my dear good Marshal, that's the very _last_ thing I desire!"

"I know, Madam, I know. But it is what he should represent to the Court
and Lady Daphne, and he is more likely to do so if he believes it to be
the fact. I will give him sealed instructions which he is not to open
till after he is started, directing him to take her--not to Clairdelune,
but to the land of her birth. Your Majesty will be good enough to write
such instructions at once."

"It seems simple, and yet, Marshal, I'm not quite sure," demurred the
Queen. "The Baron is an old dear, but just a bit of a chatterbox. He
might let the whole thing out when he gets back!"

"He will not get back," said the Marshal. "I know a certain drug that I
will a