And the crowd, coming slowly to the same mind, dispersed, followed by another crowd of persons who were not dressed in what the Queen thought was the proper way.
“We shall have the police here directly,” said Anthea in the tones of despair. “Oh, why did you come dressed like that?”
The Queen leaned against the arm of the horse-hair sofa.
“How else can a queen dress I should like to know?” she questioned.
“Our Queen wears things like other people,” said Cyril.
“Well, I don’t. And I must say,” she remarked in an injured tone, “that you don’t seem very glad to see me now I have come. But perhaps it’s the surprise that makes you behave like this. Yet you ought to be used to surprises. The way you vanished! I shall never forget it. The best magic I’ve ever seen. How did you do it?”
“Oh, never mind about that now,” said Robert. “You see you’ve gone and upset all those people, and I expect they’ll fetch the police. And we don’t want to see you collared and put in prison.”
“You can’t put queens in prison,” she said loftily.
“Oh, can’t you?” said Cyril. “We cut off a king’s head here once.”
“In this miserable room? How frightfully interesting.”