“Thank you; but a dozen will be heaps,” said the Terror.
The princess helped him gather them and lay them in a large cabbage-leaf; and then they bade each other good-by at the garden-gate.
The Twins returned home in triumph with the golden spoil. But when she was provided with two peaches for seven meals in succession, Mrs. Dangerfield could no longer eat them with a mind at ease, and she asked the Twins how they came by them. They assured her that they had been given to them by a friend but that the name of the donor must remain a secret. She knew that they would not lie to her; and thinking it likely that they came from either the squire or the vicar, both of whom took an uncommonly lively interest in her, judging from the fact that either of them had asked her to marry him more than once, she went on eating the peaches with a clear conscience.
The next afternoon the Twins devoted themselves to strengthening the princess’ spirit with no less ardor than they devoted themselves to strengthening her body. They adjured her again and again to thrust off the yoke of the baroness. The last pregnant words of Erebus to her were: “You just call her an old red pig, and see.”
Their efforts in the cause of freedom bore fruit no later than that very evening. The princess was dining with the Baroness Von Aschersleben and Miss Lambart; and the baroness, who was exceedingly jealous of Miss Lambart, had interrupted her several times in her talk with the princess; and she had done it rudely. The princess, who wanted to hear Miss Lambart talk, was annoyed. They had reached dessert; and Miss Lambart was congratulating her on the improvement in her appetite since she had just made an excellent meal, and said that it must be the air of Muttle Deeping. The baroness uttered a loud and contemptuous snort, and filled her plate with peaches. The princess looked at her with an expression of great dislike. The baroness gobbled up one peach with a rapidity almost inconceivable in a human being, and very noisily, and was midway through the second when the princess spoke.
“I want some children to play with,” she said.
Briskly and with the sound of a loud unpleasant sob the baroness gulped down the other half of the peach, and briskly she said: “Zere are no children in zis country, your Royal Highness.”
It was the custom for the princess to speak and hear only English in England.
“But I see plenty of children when I drive,” said the princess.
“Zey are nod children; zey are nod ’igh an’ well-born,” said the baroness in rasping tones.