_must_," insisted the lady. "He's your friend, and you brought
him here, and I shall look to you to--"

"Oh, Duchess! I'm sorry to interrupt your charming party, but will you
please ask the clever little gentleman who made my diamond and ruby
bracelet disappear if he would kindly return it, as I really must be
going," said a lady, hurrying up. "And my emerald chain, dear Duchess."
"And my gold and pearl locket," chimed in several other voices.

"Yes, you simply must fetch him back somehow," said the Duchess,
clutching my arm nervously. "You see my guests are beginning to get
alarmed. You must!--you must!"

"B-but I can't--it's impossible," I endeavoured to explain.

The Duchess grew pale. "Do you mean to say," she gasped, "that the man
has _really_ disappeared--and--and taken the things with him? It's too
terrible--too dreadful! What _am_ I to do? And all my guests! What will
they think of me? Oh! _Do--do_--do something! I don't mind so much about
my beautiful diamond pendant, but do somehow get back the things
belonging to my guests. You brought him here. You _must_!"

The grown-up guests were whispering together in little anxious and
indignant groups, and things were beginning to look very serious--so
serious that I sank into a chair and buried my head in my hands, trying
to think of some possible way out of the difficulty.

The Duchess was almost in tears, and several ladies were trying to
console her, when suddenly I thought of a means of escape. Of course!
the wish! I had another wish left according to what the little book had
told me. I had _wished_ for a collar-stud, and had found my own.
_Perhaps_ if I wished for the jewellery--

The thought no sooner entered my head than I jumped up and began hopping
on one leg repeating--

"Fairies, fairies! grant my wishes,
You can do so if you will,
Birds and beasts and--"

"Oh, he's mad, he's gone mad. Hold him, somebody!" cried the Duchess
when she saw me hopping about in what must have appeared to her a _most_
eccentric manner; but, though several gentlemen came up and caught hold
of me, I managed to get round three times on one leg, and three times on
the other, repeating the magic rhyme, and then I wished--_wished_ as
hard as ever I could--for the jewellery to be found, before I sank down
exhausted with my struggle.

Then a most remarkable thing happened, for the gentleman who had been
pointed out to me as the Lord Chief Justice, and who had