Rose did not deny it. She looked as if she were going to, but her eyes rested on Peggy, and she knew that Peggy knew all the truth about her. She burst into angry tears. “It is most offensive to be addressed in that way by a vulgar creature like that,” she said. “Before gentlemen, too! She hasn’t got any legs at all, herself, over there. Nor a nose either. She’s a regular figure of fun.”
The King put out his hand to soothe her. “The first law I shall make,” he said, “will be that no doll in my dominions shall ever refer to the deficiencies of another doll over there, under pain of imprisonment. I feel very strongly on the subject. That is why I object to human children being brought over here to pry, and perhaps to tell tales. I shall make a law forbidding that, too.”
“I think it would be a pity to do away with the good feeling that exists between us and human children,” said the Lord Chancellor. “Allowing one of them occasionally to visit us here is the only return we can make for special kindness. I shouldn’t make that law if I were you, your Majesty.”
“When I was at the head of my Pieces over there,” said the King, “there was a horrible child who used to put my head in her mouth. She had at the time only one tooth, but I bear the marks of that tooth upon me to this day.”
Directly he had spoken, a sudden memory came back to Peggy. A year or so before, her father had wanted to play a game of chess with a friend. The chess-men had been brought out, but it had been found that the white king was missing. Then it had come out that Peggy had had him to play with when she had been a baby, and he had not been seen since. Of course she had been too young to remember playing with him, but she felt almost certain that King Selim was the very same piece, especially as he was exactly the same in pattern as the black king, who still remained.
“Why, I do believe you’re our white chess king!” she cried out. “Father will be glad that you are found again.”
VII
THEY ALL GO TO PRISON
It would be impossible to describe the consternation that Peggy’s remark caused in the Hall of Audience. King Selim grew purple in the face with passion, and cried out in a terrible voice, “Arrest this Human instantly, and take her off to prison. She has spoken the truth, and it shall be her own undoing.”
Some royal guards stepped forward to do his bidding, and there was a great commotion among the other dolls in the Hall.