on. He went back to the antechamber and regarded the sleeping
forms of his family with disillusioned eyes. "We look like Royalties--I
_don't_ think!" he said to himself. "No wonder they've booted us out.
Why, a bally rabbit-warren would!"

But this depressing reflection soon ceased to trouble him, unless it
still continued to shadow his dreams.

CHAPTER XXII

SQUARING ACCOUNTS

Almost simultaneously Mr. Wibberley-Stimpson and his son and daughters
opened their eyes, then rubbed them, and sat up and looked about them
with a bewilderment that gradually gave way to intense relief. For,
although the light had faded, their surroundings were reassuringly
familiar. They were in their own drawing-room at "Inglegarth." It
occurred at once to most of them that they had never actually left
it--an impression that was pleasantly confirmed by Mrs.
Wibberley-Stimpson's first remark as she awoke later.

"Why, hasn't the dinner-gong gone yet?" she inquired crossly. "Cook gets
more and more unpunctual!"

"I don't think it can be eight o'clock yet, my dear," said her husband,
"it's quite light still."

"Nonsense, Sidney, it must be long past dinner-time! I've been so lost
in my own thoughts that somehow I----"

"Now, Mother, you know you've been asleep and only just woke up!" said
Edna, from one of the chintz couches.

"Have I? Perhaps I _did_ drop off just for a few seconds. In fact I must
have done--for I begin to recollect having quite a curious dream. I
dreamed that you and I, Sidney, were King and Queen of some absurd
fairy Kingdom or other, and that--well, it was not at _all_ a pleasant
dream."

"It's a most singular coincidence, Selina," he said, "but I've been
dreaming much the same sort of thing myself!"

The others looked at one another, but none of them ventured to express
just yet what was in all their minds.

"Have you?" said his wife languidly. "I suppose it was telepathy or
something of that kind. Ring for Mitchell, Clarence--I hope dinner has
not been allowed to get cold. And--and Miss Heritage seems to have left
the drawing-room. Run up, Ruby, and tell her to come down."

"I don't believe she's upstairs at all, mummy," said Ruby. "No, of
course she _can't_ be. We left her in the Palace--don't you remember?
_She's_ Queen now, you know?"

"Queen! Miss Heritage! Why, you don't mean to tell me you've been
dreaming that too?"

"So have I, as far as that goes, mater," said Clarence. "If it _was_ a
d