nsy had never been so contented in the whole of her
life. The palace seemed a different place to her, now that it
contained the doll that had come from Fairyland; and she immediately
named her the Lady Emmelina, which was the most important name she
could remember on the spur of the moment. From that day the Princess
and her doll were never separated. When the Prince and Princess went
for a drive, the Lady Emmelina sat up stiffly between them; when the
Professors came to give the children their lessons, they found that
they had to give them also to a little lady in a white silk frock with
rows and rows of little frills, who stared at them solemnly with her
large, impassive blue eyes, and never answered a word to any of their
questions. Princess Pansy no longer wished to be ten years old; she no
longer wished for anything: she had everything she wanted in the
unchangeable Lady Emmelina. For the Lady Emmelina never varied; the
Princess might have as many moods as she pleased, but the Lady Emmelina
merely smiled. For a constant companion, it would have been difficult
to find any one more delightful than the Lady Emmelina. The Prince
Perfection, however, took a very different view of the matter. Thanks
to the Lady Emmelina, he had no one to play with. He had never been
left so much to himself in his life, and in spite of his excellent
opinion of himself he found himself extremely dull. He could no longer
play cricket, since the Princess was not there to bowl for him; it was
no fun to play at soldiers if the Princess was not there to be on the
losing side; he could not pretend to be the Royal Executioner if the
Princess was not there to be executed. To be sure, he had five hundred
and fifty-four birthday presents; but what consolation could they
afford him when he was still without a steamboat that went by real
steam? The Lady Emmelina was the cause of all his misfortunes, and he
could not bear the Lady Emmelina. It was the Lady Emmelina who had
come in the place of his real steamboat and his real cannon and his
real balloon; it was the Lady Emmelina who had bewitched the little
Princess, his sister, and robbed him of his best playfellow. And the
Prince Perfection, whatever his faults were, was extremely fond of the
little Princess.

"If you will come and play cricket with me, I will let you have the
first innings," he said to her in despair one sunny afternoon.

"It is far too rough a game for the Lady Emmeli