then, he returned, it would show that---- But suppose he
was still an animal? It was doubtful if he would go back to Araby as
an animal. And then there was another possibility: perhaps he had
never come to Euralia at all. Here were a lot of questions to be
answered, and here next to him was one who could answer them. But he
must go carefully.

"Ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine, a hundred," he said aloud.
"There, I've finished my thinking and you've finished your looking."

"And what have you decided?" smiled Hyacinth.

"Decided?" said Coronel, rather startled. "Oh, no, I wasn't deciding
anything, I was just thinking. I was thinking about animals."

"So was I."

"How very curious, and also how wrong of you. You were supposed to be
admiring my clouds. What sort of animals were you thinking about?"

"Oh--all sorts."

"I was thinking about rabbits. Do you care for rabbits at all?"

"Not very much."

"Neither do I. They're so loppity. Do you like lions?"

"I think their tails are rather silly," said Hyacinth.

"Yes, perhaps they are. Now--a woolly lamb."

"I am not very fond of woolly lambs just now."

"No? Well, they're not very interesting. It's a funny thing," he
went on casually, trying to steal a glance at her, "that we should be
talking about those three animals, because I once met somebody who was
a mixture of all three together at the same time."

"So did I," said Hyacinth gravely.

But he saw her mouth trembling, and suddenly she turned round and
caught his eye, and then they burst out laughing together.

"Poor Udo," said Coronel; "and how is he looking now?"

"He is all right again now."

"All right again? Then why isn't he---- But I'm very glad he isn't."

"I didn't like him," said Hyacinth, blushing a little. And then she
went on bravely, "But I think he found he didn't like me first."

"He wants humouring," said Coronel. "It's my business to humour him,
it isn't yours."

Hyacinth looked at him with a new interest.

"Now I know who you are," she said. "He talked about you once."

"What did he say?" asked Coronel, obviously dying to know.

"He said you were good at poetry."

Coronel was a little disappointed. He would have preferred Hyacinth
to have been told that he was good at dragons. However, they had met
now and it did not matter.

"Princess," he said suddenly, "I expect you wonder what I am doing
here. I came to see if Prince Udo was in need of he