"I couldn't have," she said, "if you hadn't saved mine first. I know now that you have only been watching and following me about as you have to see that I didn't get into any danger?"
"So you were aware that I watched you?" he said.
Daphne laughed. "How could I help being?" she replied. "And of course I guessed at once that you weren't a real gardener."
"What makes you suppose that?" he said.
"Well," she said, laughing again, "I happen to have seen you at work, you know."
"I may have little skill," he said, "nevertheless, I have obtained employment here as a gardener."
"I mustn't ask you questions," she said, "but I'm quite sure that, before you came here, you were in a very different position from any labourer's." She had noticed a refinement in his speech and manner, and also the shapeliness of his hands, which the Fairy had been considerate or forgetful enough to leave unaltered.
But Daphne's words gave him a sudden hope. Had she detected that he was a Prince? If so, he was released from his promise of silence!
"All I may tell you," he said, "is that there were reasons which obliged me to leave my own country and live here where I am unknown. But I think you have guessed more than that already!"
"I will tell you what I think," she said. "I believe you are really a student, and, whatever you had to leave your country for, it was nothing you've any cause to be ashamed of. I expect you were accused of plotting against your Government—and I don't care if you did, because you wouldn't have if they'd governed properly. Anyway, you escaped, and thought you'd be safe if you could get a post in the Royal Gardens. There! it is only a guess, of course, and you needn't tell me whether I'm right or not."