ced a
hand over her lips. She saw Bluebeard, and Jack-the-Giant-killer, Old
Mother Hubbard, Aladdin with his lamp, her dear Cinderella,
Puss-in-Boots, the White Cat, and ever so many more whose portraits she
had seen in Sister Agatha's books upstairs. As to ordinary fairies,
there were far too many to count--some tall, some short, some fat and
some thin, some fair and some dark, but all with wings exactly like
Evangeline's. And yet it was quite easy to pick out Evangeline Royal
from the rest, and any one could see that she was their queen.

'Do tell me which is the prince?' asked Mary. 'Oh!' she said, in a very
excited whisper the next instant, 'that must be the prince, that one in
the white and gold clothes. Look, he's going to dance with Evangeline!'

Mary was quite right. The prince offered Evangeline his right hand and
they came to the middle of the large room together. Then the band, which
had stopped for a little while, began to play again, and the prince and
Evangeline began to dance.

'How lovely the prince looks!' said Mary; 'does he always look like
that?'

'Hus--s--sh!' said Sister Agatha, 'or they won't let us stay.'

'Oh, do please let us stay,' answered Mary in such a low whisper that
Sister Agatha scarcely knew she had spoken at all. But if ever she
stepped away from the band, which seemed to make a great noise close to
Mary's ears, Mary began to look tearful, so, although she felt rather
heavy and Sister Agatha's arms were beginning to ache, she let the child
stay on, until presently she found that she was fast asleep. And the
next thing Mary knew was that she was sitting on her own bed, whilst
Sister Agatha took off her stockings, and all the wonders she had seen
were at an end for the present.

VI

MARY IS TAKEN AWAY

Mary quite believed that she was living in an enchanted place where she
would always be able to have everything she wanted, and even a great
many things she did not want in the least. Where there would always be
plenty of nice things to eat and drink, and Evangeline to tell her
stories as nobody had done before.

She hoped she should never see Mrs. Coppert again as long as she lived,
because Evangeline had said that she should not go away until her foot
was well again, and although it was certainly better it was not quite
well yet.

But there were times when Mary felt just a little afraid, for now and
then she dreamed she was back at William Street, where everything s