“She,” replied Juana.
“Had I wist the same, as wot the saints, I had been sore afeard,” responded Maude. “And what call men your Grace’s Ladyship, an’ I may know?”
Dona Juana condescended to smile at the child’s simplicity.
“My name is Juana Fernandez,” she said. “Thou canst call me Dame Joan.”
At this point the hangings were suddenly lifted, and something which seemed to Maude the very Queen of the Fairies crept out and stood before them. Juana stopped and courtesied, an act which Maude was too fascinated to imitate.
“Whither go you, Doña Juana?” asked the vision. “In good sooth, this is the very little maid I saw a-washing the pans. Art come to sit under the cloth of estate in my stead?”
Little Maude gazed on her Fairy Queen, and was silent.
“What means your Grace, Doña Constança?” asked Juana.
“What is thy name, and wherefore earnest hither?” resumed Constance, still addressing herself to Maude.
“Maude,” said the child shyly.