he
best reasons for knowing that Miss Heritage would never be found either
in Clairdelune or Maerchenland, and that a shameful and probably
exceedingly painful death on the scaffold was their inevitable fate.

It was terrible to think that she, the acknowledged head and master-mind
of the family, had brought them to such an end as this--more terrible
still to see both her son and husband so utterly unprepared for it. Her
nerves were jarred and fretted by King Sidney's apathy and Clarence's
light-hearted optimism, and the impossibility of arousing them to a
proper sense of their position. She could only do that by confessing
what she had done--and she shuddered at the mere thought. If it would
save them--but nothing would do that now! No, she could not lower
herself so immeasurably in their esteem; she would carry her secret with
her to the block itself!

"Now, Mater," said Clarence, "you mustn't give way to the blues like
this. You can take it from me that we're as right as rain. So cheer up,
and let's see you smiling again."

The unhappy Queen made a heroic attempt at a smile, but the result was
so extraordinarily ghastly that it disheartened even Clarence.

"Oh, very well, Mater," he said, "you needn't--if it hurts you as much
as all _that_. But you've been so plucky up to now, I never thought
you'd come out as a wet blanket!"

Even Marie Antoinette herself, thought Queen Selina bitterly, had never
had to bear being called a wet blanket!

CHAPTER XXI

"WHOSE LIGHTS ARE FLED, WHOSE GARLANDS DEAD"

Daphne had taken her seat in the car with somewhat conflicting feelings.
She was going to Clairdelune, where she would be reunited to Girofle--an
altogether joyous prospect, if she could hope to find the Girofle with
whom she had last parted. But he was now the magnificent young Prince
Mirliflor, and it was quite uncertain whether she would even be able to
recognise him. It would be dreadful if she discovered that she did not
care for him any longer! Perhaps it was anxiety, but still more probably
the fact of her Fairy blood that prevented her from being overcome by
the somnolence that none of purely British birth seemed able to resist
for long after entering that magic car.

Daphne was not in the least drowsy, and thus was startled, after the
Palace and Eswareinmal had vanished out of sight, by hearing the Baron
suddenly order the storks to go to the Chapel in the forest of
Schlangenzweigen, and seeing the