o
necessity for it as well as I do."

"All right, Miss," he replied, soothingly.

"And you are lying when you say that children come here," she went
on, controlling herself with a great effort, "for they do not."

The gardener scratched his head doubtfully and walked away,
muttering to himself. The girl turned to Caroline.

"Tell me," she demanded eagerly, her voice low and hurried, "how did
you come here? Are you with friends? Where are they? What were you
saying to that queen woman?"

"I--I--we were--I was Mary Queen of Scots," Caroline stammered,
struggling, as the happy dreamer struggles, not to wake.

The girl started back from her, pale with an emotion that left her
handsome face drawn and old.

"Good Heavens!--it can't be--a child! A _child_!" she cried. Tears
stood in her dark eyes.

"How pitiful!" she said, softly, to herself. Then, forcing a smile,
she leaned coaxingly over Caroline.

"I am only too delighted to make your Majesty's acquaintance," she
said, her voice a little husky, but very sweet. "I have read of you
often. But surely your Majesty has not been here long? I do not
recall having seen you before to-day."

"N--no, you haven't," Caroline answered, a little grudgingly, "I
only just came."

"Ah!" said the girl, "and how did you come? Not through the house
surely?"

"I came under the fence," said Caroline, "the gates were locked. I
was Marie Antoinette then, but I changed after she said she was."

"Oh! Oh!" the girl groaned, covering her face with slender, ringless
hands.

"But I'd just as soon," Caroline assured her--"honestly I would.
Only you need a Bothwell for her. I only thought of Marie Antoinette
after the tumbrel went by. I suppose she's used to Marie Antoinette,
prob'ly, and so you can't get her to change."

She nodded in the direction of the little lady, now far from them,
white against the shrubbery.

The girl drew in her breath in little gasps, as if she had been
running.

"Y--yes," she assented, "she's used to being Marie Antoinette. Where
is the hole you got through? Is it big enough for--for anybody?"

"Oh, yes," said Caroline indifferently, "but nobody knows about it
but me and a few other k--prisoners, I mean; I've used it when I was
escaping before. I think it was a rabbit-hole first, and then we
made it bigger. Isn't that funny--Alice got in by a rabbit-hole,
too, didn't she? I thought of her as soon as I saw the gardener.
He's very polite, isn't he?"

T