he Court gathered to see her off the next morning, but the only
Royalty present was little Princess Ruby, who held her former Governess
in close and tearful embraces. "_Darling!_" she said, through her sobs,
"it's perfectly beastly to think you've been here all this time and I
never knew it! And now you really _are_ going and I mayn't see you for
ever so long! It will be so dull, for of course I wouldn't play with the
Gnomes now--even if they weren't all down with mumps. And Edna's so
snappy, and Clarence is going to marry a nasty wet Water-nixie--and I
wish we'd all stayed at Inglegarth, that I do!" Daphne had not heard
before of Clarence's engagement and, though she naturally made no
comment, she could not think he was to be congratulated on his choice.
She did her best to comfort Ruby, and after taking leave of her nearly
as inconsolable friends in the Household, she at length found herself
seated in the car with the Baron, who had dispensed with the usual
attendants. And then the Courtyard, with the mass of upturned faces and
waving hands, slowly sank to the rhythmical beating of the storks' wings
as they obeyed the order, "To the Palace of Clairdelune."

Clarence saw the car pass overhead from the grove in the Palace Gardens,
to which he had betaken himself in his dull misery. He knew that Daphne
must be on her way to rejoin her lover, and tried to console himself by
the reflection that it didn't matter to him. _He_ was done for, anyhow,
whether she went or stayed. But again came the bitter thought that there
had been a time when, if he had only gone the right way about it, he
might have--"I thought she wasn't good enough to marry," he said to
himself. "Not _good_ enough! a girl like her! Now I'm booked to marry a
Lord-knows-what with green hair. Serves me damned well right too!"

Edna also saw the car as she walked with the Queen on the terrace that
commanded the City. "There goes Miss Heritage!" she said. "Delighted to
recapture her Mirliflor, no doubt! I don't wish to reproach you in _any_
way, Mother, but I _can't_ think you've shown much consideration for
_my_ interests in packing her off to him like this!"

It was painful to Queen Selina to be so misunderstood, but she decided
that the injustice must be borne for the present. "My love," she said,
"I could not possibly keep her _here_. And perhaps," she could could not
help adding, "perhaps _some_ day you will see that I have been a better
mother to you than