‘If you don’t come to-morrow,’ Dr. Hurst was saying, ‘I am afraid it will have to be put off indefinitely, as I am going away for ten days. When I come back, you will have gone to Crofts, you see.’
‘I will ask Auntie Anna,’ answered Jill.
Barbara seized the first opportunity to interrupt them. ‘What’s going to happen to-morrow, Dr. Hurst?’ she demanded. ‘Are you going to carry off the princess at last?’
‘I–I don’t think so,’ said Dr. Hurst, sitting down beside her.
‘Why don’t you?’ demanded the child.
‘Well,’ said Dr. Hurst, smiling, ‘I don’t know whether the princess is ready to be carried off. Are you so anxious to get rid of her?’
Both he and Jill were used by this time to her fancy for weaving the people she liked best into a fairy tale. But Jill was not smiling so much as usual this morning.
‘I don’t want to be carried off by anybody, thank you, Babs,’ she said demurely.
‘Oh, that doesn’t make any difference,’ Babs assured her. ‘If you’re a princess, you just have to be carried off whether you like it or not.’
‘Then I’ll be a new kind of princess, and refuse to have anything to do with the prince when he comes. Shall I, Babs?’ suggested Jill, lightly.