lood in his veins! He can't even rank as Prince
Consort!"

"Not so, my dear, not so," corrected the Fairy, "by the custom of
Maerchenland, anyone who weds the Sovereign shares the throne, and your
husband will be as truly the King of this Country as you will be its
Queen."

"Oh, is _that_ the rule?" said Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson, not best
pleased. "Well, Sidney, I trust you will show yourself equal to your
position, that is all."

"I trust so, my love," he replied uneasily. "It--it's come on me at
rather short notice. However!"

"If Daddy and Mums are King and Queen," asked Ruby, "will Edna and me be
Princesses?"

"Undoubtedly you will," said the Court Godmother.

"Then Clarence will be a Prince. So you see, Miss Heritage, dear, you
_have_ met a Prince after all!"

"Shut up, Kiddie!" said the new Crown Prince in some confusion.

"And what will Miss Heritage be, Mummy?"

"Miss Heritage will be what she was before, my dear--your governess."

"But I shan't want one any more--we're in Fairyland now--and Fairy
Princesses haven't got to do lessons. Oh, Mums, couldn't you make Miss
Heritage a Princess too? Do!"

"Why not?" said the Fairy, glancing at Daphne, whose colour had risen
slightly. "Anybody might very well take her to be one as it is."

"Miss Heritage," said Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson, "has, I am sure, too much
good sense to expect a title of any kind. She will continue to be my
daughter's instructress, and I may possibly find a place for her as
Mistress of the Robes or something; but it's much too early to say
anything definite at--Really, Edna," she broke off suddenly, "how you
can sit there calmly reading as if nothing had happened!"

"I was merely running through my lecture-notes again, Mother," said
Edna. "If I _am_ a Princess," she added, for the benefit of the Court
Godmother, "that is no reason why I shouldn't go on cultivating my
mind."

"Now you're a Princess, my dear," replied her mother, "it doesn't
signify to anybody whether your mind is cultivated or not."

"It signifies a great deal to _me_, mother," said Edna, and resumed the
study of her notes with an air of conscious merit.

"I must say _one_ thing, Mrs. Fogleplug," Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson
proceeded; "it would have been more considerate if I had been given
proper notice, and a reasonable time to prepare for such a complete
change as this. I do feel _that_."

She did; it was a great deprivation to her to have lost the opportunity
of