'It is not usual,' said Mr. Noah, 'for champions to require assistance with dragons.'
'I should think not indeed,' said the veiled lady; 'but you're not going the usual way about it at all. Where's the princess, I should like to know?'
'There isn't any princess,' said Mr. Noah.
'Then it won't be a proper dragon-killing,' she said, with an angry shaking of skirts; 'that's all I can say.'
'I wish it was all,' said Mr. Noah to himself.
'If there isn't a princess it isn't fair,' said the veiled one; 'and I shall consider it's my turn to be Deliverer.'
'Be silent, woman,' said Mr. Noah.
'Woman, indeed,' said the lady. 'I ought to have a proper title.'
'Your title is the Pretender to the——'
'I know,' she interrupted; 'but you forget you're speaking to a lady. You can call me the Pretenderette.'