ou might as well go home again?' 'Why, I've seen simply
nothing yet,' said the Queen, arranging her starry veil. 'I wished to be
at your door, and I was. Now I must go and see your King and Queen.'

'Nobody's allowed to,' said Anthea in haste; 'but look here, we'll take
you and show you anything you'd like to see--anything you CAN see,' she
added kindly, because she remembered how nice the Queen had been to them
in Babylon, even if she had been a little deceitful in the matter of
Jane and Psammead.

'There's the Museum,' said Cyril hopefully; 'there are lots of things
from your country there. If only we could disguise you a little.'

'I know,' said Anthea suddenly. 'Mother's old theatre cloak, and there
are a lot of her old hats in the big box.'

The blue silk, lace-trimmed cloak did indeed hide some of the Queen's
startling splendours, but the hat fitted very badly. It had pink roses
in it; and there was something about the coat or the hat or the Queen,
that made her look somehow not very respectable.

'Oh, never mind,' said Anthea, when Cyril whispered this. 'The thing is
to get her out before Nurse has finished her forty winks. I should think
she's about got to the thirty-ninth wink by now.'

'Come on then,' said Robert. 'You know how dangerous it is. Let's make
haste into the Museum. If any of those people you made guys of do fetch
the police, they won't think of looking for you there.'

The blue silk coat and the pink-rosed hat attracted almost as much
attention as the royal costume had done; and the children were
uncommonly glad to get out of the noisy streets into the grey quiet of
the Museum.

'Parcels and umbrellas to be left here,' said a man at the counter.

The party had no umbrellas, and the only parcel was the bag containing
the Psammead, which the Queen had insisted should be brought.

'I'M not going to be left,' said the Psammead softly, 'so don't you
think it.'

'I'll wait outside with you,' said Anthea hastily, and went to sit on
the seat near the drinking fountain.

'Don't sit so near that nasty fountain,' said the creature crossly; 'I
might get splashed.'

Anthea obediently moved to another seat and waited. Indeed she waited,
and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. The Psammead dropped
into an uneasy slumber. Anthea had long ceased to watch the swing-door
that always let out the wrong person, and she was herself almost asleep,
and still the others did not come back.

It was q