"I"ve _always_ wanted--" began Merriwig--"to be a toad," he ended from lower down.
"Well?" said the Fairy.
"I don"t think much of Fairies," said the King. "I don"t think they"re very powerful." He waited for the Fairy to look at him, but she pretended to be thinking of something else. After waiting a minute or two, he added, "They can"t make you say things you don"t want to say."
The Fairy stamped her foot still more angrily, and moved her wand a third time.
"Be silent!" she commanded. "And stay silent for ever!"
There was no sound in the forest. The Fairy looked at the blue sky through the green roof above her; she looked through the tall trunks of the trees to the King"s castle beyond; her eyes fell upon the little glade on her left, upon the mossy bank on her right . . . but she would not look down to the toad at her feet.
No, she wouldn"t. . . .
She _wouldn"t_. . . .
And yet----
It was too much for her. She could resist no longer. She looked at the nasty, horrid, crawling toad, the dumb toad at her feet that was once a King.
And, catching her eye, the toad--_winked_.
Some winks are more expressive than others. The Fairy knew quite well what this one meant. It meant:
"I don"t think much of Fairies. I don"t think they"re very powerful.
They can"t make you say things you don"t want to say."
The Fairy waved her wand in disgust.
"Oh, be a King again," she said impatiently, and vanished.
And so that is the story of how the King of Euralia met the Fairy in the forest. Roger Scurvilegs tells it well--indeed, almost as well as I do--but he burdens it with a moral. You must think it out for yourself; I shall not give it to you.
Wiggs didn"t bother about the moral. Her elbows on her knees, her chin resting on her hands, she gazed at the forest and imagined the scene to herself.
"How wonderful to be a King like that!" she thought.
"That was a long time ago," explained Hyacinth. "Father must have been rather lovely in those days," she added.
"It was a very bad Fairy," said Wiggs.
"It was a very stupid one. I wouldn"t have given in to Father like that."
"But there are good Fairies, aren"t there? I met one once."
"You, child? Where?"
I don"t know if it would have made any difference to Euralian history if Wiggs had been allowed to tell about her Fairy then; as it was, she didn"t tell the story till later on, when Belvane happened to be near.
I regret to say that Belvane listened. It was the sort of story that _always_ got overheard, she explained afterwards, as if that were any excuse. On this occasion she was just too early to overhear, but in time to prevent the story being told without her.
"The Countess Belvane," said an attendant, and her ladyship made a superb entry.
"Good morning, Countess," said Hyacinth.
"Good morning, your Royal Highness. Ah, Wiggs, sweet child," she added carelessly, putting out a hand to pat the sweet child"s head, but missing it.
"Wiggs was just telling me a story," said the Princess.
"Sweet child," said Belvane, feeling vaguely for her with the other hand. "_Could_ I interrupt the story with a little business, your Royal Highness?"
At a nod from the Princess, Wiggs withdrew.
"Well?" said Hyacinth nervously.
Belvane had always a curious effect on the Princess when they were alone together. There was something about her large manner which made Hyacinth feel like a schoolgirl who has been behaving badly: alarmed and apologetic. I feel like this myself when I have an interview with my publishers, and Roger Scurvilegs (upon the same subject) drags in a certain uncle of his before whom (so he says) he always appears at his worst. It is a common experience.
"Just one or two little schemes to submit to your Majesty," said the Countess. "How silly of me--I mean, your Royal Highness. Of course your Royal Highness may not like them at all, but in case your Royal Highness did, I just--well, I just wrote them out."
She unfolded, one by one, a series of ornamental parchments.
"They are beautifully written," said the Princess.
Belvane blushed at the compliment. She had a pa.s.sion for coloured inks and rulers. In her diary the day of the week was always underlined in red, the important words in the day"s doings being frequently picked out in gold. On taking up the diary you saw at once that you were in the presence of somebody.
The first parchment was headed:
SCHEME FOR ECONOMY IN REALM
"Economy" caught the eye in pale pink. The next parchment was headed:
SCHEME FOR SAFETY OF REALM
"Safety" clamoured to you in blue.
The third parchment was headed:
SCHEME FOR ENCOURAGEMENT OF LITERATURE IN REALM
"Encouragement of Literature" had got rather cramped in the small quarters available for it. A heading, Belvane felt, should be in one line; she had started in letters too big for it, and the fact that the green ink was giving out made it impossible to start afresh.
There were ten parchments altogether.
By the end of the third one, the Princess began to feel uncomfortable.
By the end of the fifth one she knew that it was a mistake her ever having come into the Royal Family at all.
By the end of the seventh she decided that if the Countess would forgive her this time she would never be naughty again.
By the end of the ninth one she was just going to cry.