, Nora and Jane Linwood, at this time were not robed in
any other than their ordinary attire; perhaps that was one reason why
their maintenance of their characters was not quite so perfect as that
of the principal two. Hamilton stretched forward his wooden sceptre to
the queen with benignant haste and dignity. Daisy, only too glad to
shrink away, closed her eyes and lay back in the arms of her attendants
in a manner that was really very satisfactory. But the attendants
themselves were not in order.

"Jane, you must not laugh--" said her brother.

"I ain't laughing!"

"Yes, but you were."

"The queen is fainting, you know," said Mrs. Sandford. "You are one of
her maids, and you are very much distressed about it."

"I am not distressed a bit. I don't care."

"Nora, do not forget that you are another attendant. Your business is
with your mistress. You must be looking into her face, to see if she is
really faint or if you can perceive signs of mending. You must look very
anxious."

But Nora looked very cross; and as Jane persisted in giggling, the
success of that picture was not quite excellent this time.

"Nora is the most like a Jewess--" Theresa remarked.

"O, Nora will make a very good maid of honour by and by," Mrs. Sandford
replied.

But Nora had her own thoughts.

"Daisy, how shall I be dressed?" she inquired, when Daisy was disrobed
of her magnificence and at leisure to talk.

"I don't know. O, in some nice way," said Daisy, getting into her corner
of the couch again.

"Yes, but shall I--shall Jane and I have bracelets, and a girdle, and
something on our heads too?"

"No, I suppose not. The queen of course is most dressed, Nora; you know
she must be."

"I should like to have _one_ dress," said Nora. "I am not anything at
all. All the fun is in the dress. You are to have four dresses."

"Well, so are you to have four."

"No, I am not. What four?"

"This one, you know; and Red Riding-hood--and the Princes in the
Tower--and Cinderella."

"I am to be only one of the ugly sisters in Cinderella--I don't believe
aunt Frances will give her much of a dress; and I hate Red Riding-hood;
and the Princes in the Tower are not to be dressed at all. They are
covered up with the bed-clothes."

"Nora," said Daisy softly,--"would you like to be dressed as John
Alden?"

"As _what?_" said Nora, in no very accommodating tone of voice.

"John Alden--that Puritan picture, you know, with the spinning wheel. I