"Quite so," said de Morin laughing.
"Well, my dear fellow," continued Delange, "the fact is that she is so wrapped up in her former admirer, that she has no eyes for any one else."
"Be that as it may," replied de Morin, "I intend, metaphorically speaking, to show her the door. It has taken us five days to reach this spot, but she could manage the return journey in three, and, during the week thus occupied, the Monbuttoos will have had time to escape from Ulinda. The Queen will no longer be in a position to exterminate them, and we shall have saved them, as was our duty, from any measures of reprisal."
"Do you think it absolutely necessary," asked Delange, "to be in such a hurry? Could we not keep her prisoner for a few days longer?"
"That would be cruel. The Queen will have hard enough work, as it is, to find her way out of the labyrinth of mountains without our making her task still more difficult."
"How is she ever to get out of it? The rock which served us as a means of communication between the mountain and the plain has been overthrown into the abyss. An empty space, thirty yards high, separates her from her kingdom."
"First of all, my dear Delange," replied M. de Morin, "permit me to point out that your thirty yards may be reduced to twenty, seeing that the rock is at least ten yards thick. Secondly, in anticipation of this little difficulty, I have paid your friend the delicate attention of leaving on the plateau the rope which we used as a railing. Walinda is quite capable of uncoiling it, and she is quite agile enough to descend to her own country with its assistance. So, you see, you need not be at all uneasy as to the fate of this very interesting person."
"Possibly so, but you are far more anxious about her return to her dominions than she is herself. She does not wish to leave us."
"That is possible also, but, unfortunately, I most decidedly wish her to leave us."
"Why, may I ask?"