“But madam mustn’t expect not to find it ’ard. Consecrytion is always ’ard, by what I can myke out. When Mr. Rash was a little ’un ’e used to get Miss Pye, ’is governess, to read to ’im a fairy tyle about a little mermaid what fell in love with a prince on land. Bein’ in love with ’im she wanted to be with ’im, natural like; but there she was in one element, as you might sye, and ’im in another.”
“That’d be like me.”
“Which is why I’m tellin’ madam of the story. Well, off the little mermaid goes to the sea-witch to find out ’ow she could get rid of ’er fish’s tyle and ’ave two feet for to walk about in the prince’s palace. Well, the sea-witch she up and tells ’er what she’d ’ave to do. Only, says she, if you do that you’ll ’ave to pye for it with every step you tykes; for every step you tykes’ll be like walkin’ on sharp blydes. Now, says she, to the little mermaid, do you think it’d be worth while?”
In Letty’s eyes all the stars glittered with her eagerness for the dénouement. “And did she think it was worth while—the little mermaid?”
“She did; but I’ll give madam the tyle to read for ’erself. It’s in the syme little book what Miss Pye used to read out of—up in Mr. Rash’s old nursery.”
With the pride of a royal thing conscious of its royalty the car rolled to the door and stopped. It was the prince’s car, while she, Letty, was a mermaid born in an element different from his, and encumbered with a fish’s tail. She must have shown this in her face, for Steptoe said, with his fatherly smile:
“Madam may ’ave to walk on blydes—but it’ll be in the Prince’s palace.”
It’ll be in the Prince’s palace! Letty repeated this to herself as she followed him out to the car. Holding the door open for her, Eugene, who had been told of her romance, touched his cap respectfully. When she had taken her seat he tucked the robe round her, respectfully again. Steptoe marked the social difference between them by sitting beside Eugene.