es!"

"I should have been a traitor had I thus denied my Queen. For, as you
have seen, she bears on her breast the very jewel of her father the
Prince, even as the stars foretold."

"Undoubtedly she is his daughter," the Marshal admitted reluctantly. It
never occurred to him for a moment--nor would it occur to any of his
countrymen--that the pendant was anything but absolutely conclusive
proof of Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson's right to the throne. Maerchenland
notions of what constitutes legal evidence have always been and remain
elementary.

"But it's pretty plain," he went on, "that the young fool must have made
a most unworthy marriage to have begotten one so utterly lacking in all
queenliness and dignity."

"She will soon acquire both," the Court Chamberlain affirmed stoutly,
"as she becomes more accustomed to her position."

"She may," declared the Marshal, "when a frog grows feathers. And this
consort of hers! _Is_ he a fit Monarch for Maerchenland? Even _you_,
Baron, can hardly say that for him! I may not have been beloved as
Regent, but at least I have made my authority respected. But what do
such a couple as this know about ruling a country? They'll make a
hopeless hash of it!"

"Without guidance, perhaps," the Baron admitted; "but they will have the
inestimable advantage, Marshal, of our experience and advice."

"Ha!" said the Marshal. "So they will--so they will! I was forgetting
that!"

"No doubt they will submit to our guidance," went on the Baron, "and
thus we shall be able to save them from any dangerous indiscretions."

"Just so," agreed the Marshal, with the flicker of a smile.

The Court Chamberlain, at all events, spoke in all sincerity. His
hereditary instinct alone would have been enough to ensure his loyalty
to his new Sovereigns, whatever he might think of them in private. And
they were his own "finds," which gave them an added value in his
estimation, as will easily be understood by any collector of
curiosities.

CHAPTER IV

CROWNED HEADS

"'Pon my word, my love," Mr. Stimpson exclaimed, as his wife came
out of her pavilion in her Coronation Robes and chain, attended
by the Court Godmother, "I should hardly have known you! You look
majestic!--abso-lute-ly majestic!"

"I wish I could say the same of _you_, Sidney," she replied; "but, as I
have told you more than once, legs like yours never ought to be seen
except in trousers.... Considering my own and my daughter's robes are