Presently the Queen said to him, "Charley, did you ever blow bubbles?"
"And what have you seen in them?" asked the Queen.
"Oh! the most lovely colors! and sometimes a charming tiny picture of the room where we were."
"Would you like to see some fairy bubbles?"
"Ah, yes! I should like it of all things."
The Queen gently clapped her hands, and instantly a page was kneeling at her feet.
"Go, Light-wing," said the Queen, "and tell Fancy to come here with her basin of foam and magic pipe."
The fairy rose from his knee, bowed low, and sped away. In an instant he returned in company with the daintiest, most ethereal little elf in fairy-land. Her wings were of air—her golden ringlets danced in the "tremulous, singing wind," giving out the perfume of the blossoming lily; her tiny rose-bud of a mouth opened, disclosing the whitest and smallest seed-pearl teeth, as with a smile beaming with love and sweetness, she said:
"Beloved Queen, most gladly have I come at your bidding. Deign but to command, and I will hasten to obey."