[p268]
‘I wish I wasn’t so stupid,’ he said, and then there was a knock at the door. James wiped his hands and opened. Some one stood there in very picturesque rags and tatters. ‘Please,’ said some one, who was of course the Princess, ‘is Professor Taykin at home?’
‘Walk in, please,’ said James.
‘My snakes alive!’ said Taykin, ‘what a day we’re having. Three visitors in one morning. How kind of you to call. Won’t you take a chair?’
‘I hoped,’ said the veiled Princess, ‘that you’d give me something else to take.’
‘A glass of wine,’ said Taykin. ‘You’ll take a glass of wine?’
‘No, thank you,’ said the beggar maid who was the Princess.
‘Then take … take your veil off,’ said the nurse, ‘or you won’t feel the benefit of it when you go out.’
‘I can’t,’ said Aura, ‘it wouldn’t be safe.’
‘Too beautiful, eh?’ said the Magician. ‘Still—you’re quite safe here.’
‘Can you do magic?’ she abruptly asked.