"Don't cry, dear," said Kathleen; "let me go and tell the King and
Queen."
"The ?"
"Your royal father and mother."
"Oh, don't mock me!" said the poor Princess. "You know that was
only a game, too, like ,"
"Like the bread and cheese," said Jimmy triumphantly. "I knew
that was!"
"But your dress and being asleep in the maze, and ,"
"Oh, I dressed up for fun, because everyone's away at the fair, and I
put the clew just to make it all more real. I was playing at Fair
Rosamond first, and then I heard you talking in the maze, and I
thought what fun; and now I'm invisible, and I shall never come
right again, never I know I shan't! It serves me right for lying, but I
didn't really think you'd believe it not more than half, that is," she
added hastily, trying to be truthful.
"But if you're not the Princess, who are you?" asked Kathleen, still
embracing the unseen.
"I'm my aunt lives here," said the invisible Princess. "She may be
home any time. Oh, what shall I do?"
"Perhaps she knows some charm "
"Oh, nonsense!" said the voice sharply; "she doesn't believe in
charms. She would be so vexed. Oh, I daren't let her see me like
this!" she added wildly.
"And all of you here, too. She'd be so dreadfully cross."
The beautiful magic castle that the children had believed in now
felt as though it were tumbling about their ears.
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