In Brief Authority Part 43

"That," replied the Queen, "is very satisfactory. We shall certainly send the young person a wedding-present. Who _is_ she? One of the Royal kitchen-maids, I presume?"

"She was in your Majesty's service as a lady-in-waiting," he said, "and her name is Daphne."

"Oh," said Queen Selina. "Really? Miss Heritage? Well, you are to be congratulated, I'm sure."

"But, Mater," said Clarence, "it can't be _her_! I thought you'd had her sent home?"

"I had made arrangements for her return, Clarence, but it seems to have been postponed for some reason--luckily, as things have turned out. She has been given rooms in a pavilion behind the Palace Gardens, where no doubt she managed to become acquainted with this young man."

"And he may take it," said the Fairy, "that the Lady Daphne is at liberty to depart with him at once?"

"Certainly," said the Queen. "It is hardly, perhaps--but Miss Heritage is no doubt right in accepting the first offer she receives."

"Quite," said Princess Edna, "though it seems odd--even for a Governess--to think of marrying a gardener! But I'm sure I wish her _every_ happiness."

There is no doubt that the Court G.o.dmother should have been content with this, but her anger and disgust were too much for her discretion. She could not resist the temptation to humiliate and confound these upstarts by a sensational stroke, whatever it cost her.

"Perhaps," she said, "the Lady Daphne has made a wiser choice than any of you may imagine." With this, after muttering an incantation, she touched Girofle with her crutch-handled staff, and in his stead Prince Mirliflor stood revealed in rich and splendid attire before them all.

The Queen was electrified for a moment, as were Edna and most present.

But as soon as the shock had pa.s.sed she cried: "This _is_ a surprise!

But, my _dear_ Prince Mirliflor, why--_why_ didn't you tell us who you were before? You see, we couldn't possibly----!"

"It was really too naughty of you to play us such a trick, Prince!" said Edna, "when, as you might have known----!"

"Never mind!" purred the Queen, "we'll forgive him--won't we, Edna?"

"Of course you only said that about Miss Heritage to tease us?" said Edna, who really believed it was so.

"I said but the truth, Princess," he replied. "She has promised to be my wife."

"And the match," put in the triumphant Fairy, addressing Queen Selina, "already has your sanction!"

"Oh," said the Queen, "but that was before--I think," she went on with a forced smile of much sweetness--"I think you and I, my dear Court G.o.dmother, must have a little talk over this in private before I can make up my mind _what_ I ought to do. Perhaps you will be kind enough to follow me to my Cabinet? Excuse my deserting you for a little while, my dear Mirliflor. I shall leave you to Edna, who, I know, is dying to express all the grat.i.tude and admiration she feels."

And she swept with great stateliness out of the Throne Room towards her Cabinet, the Court G.o.dmother following with a presentiment that her pet scheme was about to encounter some opposition, and no very definite idea how to meet it.

But that it must and should be overcome somehow she was thoroughly determined.

It should be mentioned here that, shortly after his transformation, Mirliflor found inside his rich doublet something which proved to be the Chamberlain's cap. He was about to return it, but the Baron showed so little desire to receive his property in public that the Prince decided to keep it until a better opportunity presented itself. And then he forgot all about it, for which, as things turned out, both had reason to be thankful afterwards.

CHAPTER XVIII

A PREVIOUS ENGAGEMENT

"Well, my dear Court G.o.dmother," began the Queen, as she sank on an ivory and cloth-of-gold settee in her private Cabinet, and cooled her somewhat heated face with a jewelled ostrich-feathered fan, "I had better tell you frankly that I think both you and that designing little adventuress have behaved in a very underhand way in this business--a way that I naturally resent. Mirliflor, as you very well know, came here on darling Edna's account, and you deliberately threw that Miss Heritage in his way--I haven't the least doubt you told her who he really was!"

"That," said the Fairy, "is just what I did _not_ do. It was part of the test I put to her. She still has no idea that he is more than a student."

"Well, you egged her on to set her cap at him, and if he cares for her at all it can be no more than a pa.s.sing fancy. I cannot be a party to letting the poor, dear young fellow be entrapped into a _mesalliance_ to please you, and I shall see that she is sent back to England at once, as, but for you, she would have been long before this."

"I don't want to lose my temper with you if I can help it," said the Fairy, with an ominous flush on her peaked old nose, "because I've been through a good deal as it is this morning, and I'm feeling very far from well in consequence. But you had better understand that Lady Daphne is not going to be sent back to England--she is going with Mirliflor and me to Clairdelune, and we shall start immediately."

"_You_ are at liberty to go where you please, but Miss Heritage will certainly not leave the Palace except to return to her own country."

"And I tell you I intend to take her to Clairdelune with me, and you are powerless to prevent it."

"Indeed?" said the Queen, in high wrath. "Answer me this: Am I Queen of Marchenland, or am I not?"

"You are _not_!" retorted the Fairy, before she could prevent herself, for the opening was really too tempting. She had not meant to go so far, but, having started, she proceeded to enlighten the Queen as to her t.i.tle, and the very slender evidence on which it was based.

"I don't believe a single word of it!" declared Queen Selina, as defiantly as if this were the fact. "It's a wicked plot to set up my own governess as a pretender, but there's a very short way of settling _that_! I shall send for the Marshal"--and she made a movement towards a handbell of exquisitely engraved crystal with a sapphire tongue. "I shall tell him what you have dared to say, and have you and that wretched girl arrested as traitors!"

The Fairy shook with mingled fury and fear, for she saw too late that she had made a wrong move. "Before you do that, listen to me," she said.

"All I have said is true, and you know it is true, but it was you who forced me to say it, and I am willing to be silent so long as you permit me to convey Lady Daphne to Clairdelune. As she has no suspicion of her claims to the throne, you need have no fear that she will a.s.sert them."

"I can't trust either of you--you are much too dangerous," said the Queen, and she rang the bell.

"You had better take my warning," said the Fairy, her wrinkled mouth working with pa.s.sion. "Old as I am, I have some powers left that you little suspect. Scarce an hour ago I changed myself into a pool and Lady Daphne into a cypress" (she naturally omitted to add how narrowly they had escaped having to remain so indefinitely), "and by aid of the same spell I could transform you to a shape which--which you will discover after I have caused you to a.s.sume it. And it is a shape that you will not _like_!"

"Pooh!" said the Queen, on whom the re-integration of the under-gardener into Mirliflor seemed to have left little impression. "Either you're trying to frighten me or you're crazy. Whichever it is, you ought to be put under restraint--and I shall see to it that you are!"

"After that I'll do what I threatened!" snarled the Court G.o.dmother. "It may kill me--but I don't care--I'll do it!" And she mouthed words of mystic sound and import, though her jaw trembled so violently that she could scarcely p.r.o.nounce them. "Now," she concluded, pointing her crutch at the Queen's breast, "become--become a----!"

But what the Queen was to become never transpired, for before the infuriated Fairy could manage to name it her features suddenly became contorted, the stick fell from her hand, and she sank down in a heap just as the attendants entered in answer to the Royal summons.

"I'm afraid," said Queen Selina, "that the Court G.o.dmother has fainted.

I daresay it's nothing serious, still one of you had better bring the Royal Apothecary at once. Be careful to keep it from the Court, as I wish to avoid unnecessary alarm." The others endeavoured to restore the afflicted Fairy, but, though still alive, she was in some kind of cataleptic condition which was beyond the ordinary remedies. The Court Apothecary arrived and applied blisters without result, and finally gave it as his opinion that, while she might survive for some time, she would in all probability never speak again.

So Queen Selina ordered her to be removed to her apartments, and the fact that she was indisposed to be suppressed for the present, after which she left her Cabinet, feeling that Providence had been more than usually judicious. Her next step was to send for the Marshal and instruct him to remove Daphne from the Pavilion to a chamber in one of the Palace towers, where she was to remain a prisoner under his guardians.h.i.+p. "It's only for a short time, Marshal," she said. "And of course you will see that Miss Heritage is made thoroughly comfortable."

And then, the ground having been thus cleared, she returned to the Throne Room. "Just a moment or two, my dear Mirliflor," she said suavely, "if Edna can spare you," and she drew him aside. "Well," she began, "I've been telling the dear old Court G.o.dmother the difficulty I am in. You see, I would willingly recognise this engagement of yours--whatever I may _think_ about it--if I only _could_. But really, you know, I can't _possibly_ allow you to take Miss Heritage away until I am satisfied that your dear Father approves of her as a daughter-in-law. As her employer I feel responsible for the poor girl.

And, besides, he _might_ think I had _encouraged_ this match, and I can't afford to put myself in such a false position as _that_!"

"But," he objected, "my G.o.dmother is going with us to Clairdelune, and she will explain all."

"She has altered her plans," said the Queen, who was developing a quite unsuspected talent for diplomacy. "To tell you the truth, I fancy she is getting a little nervous about how King Tournesol may take what she has done. She feels--as I am afraid _I_ do--that it is wiser to keep dear Miss Heritage here under her own care till you have broken the news to your Father and obtained his consent."

"My Father is certain to consent," said the Prince, "and if he did not----"

"Oh, quite so--quite so--but both your G.o.dmother and I consider that we ought to wait till he _does_ consent. Of course, if you can bring us a letter from him stating that he approves, all will be well. I'm sure you must quite understand that that is really as far as I _can_ go under the circ.u.mstances. And, if you start at once, you will be back here again in a very few days, bringing, I hope, a favourable answer. We shall be most pleased to lend you any horse you like in the Royal Stables."

She was so plausible that poor Mirliflor, who, like most Fairy princes, was not very deeply versed in feminine wiles, was quite taken in. He thought her lacking in distinction for a Queen, but well meaning. And it was so like his G.o.dmother to impose one more test on him.

"I will set forth, then," he said, "as soon as I have seen my Daphne and a.s.sured her of my speedy return."