"I guess that will make you change your mind," she said, handing the injunction to her captor.
The d.u.c.h.ess read it carefully; her face paled, and she too stamped her foot.
"I"ll see about this, she roared angrily, and in a moment she had gone, slamming the door so hard behind her that the building fairly shook. A moment later Alice followed, and in a short time was bounding down the stairway as fast as her little legs would carry her toward freedom, when all of a sudden she tripped and began to fall--down, down, down--O, would she never stop! And then, b.u.mp! Her fall was over, and strange to relate the little maid found herself sitting on the floor back in her own nursery in her own real home, with her mother bending over her.
"Dear me, Alice," said her mother. "I hope you haven"t hurt yourself."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "WHY-HAVE I--I REALLY FALLEN?"]
"No," said Alice. "Why--have I--I really fallen?"
"You most certainly have--off the sofa," laughed her mother. "Where have you been?" she added. "In Wonderland again?"
"No," said Alice. "In Blunderland--this time."
Which struck her father, when he heard the story of her adventures later, as a very apt and descriptive t.i.tle for the M. O. Country.