“Just the thing,” cried Ione.
“No,” said Harold, “you girls go on while the Prince, Mercury and I go to the theatre.”
“Very well. We must be off before we lose sight of our little lady’s brougham. See you later, au revoir!” cried Ione.
Away went the girls, while the boys entered the miniature theatre which they were only able to do because of the power of their magic robes.
Presently the little brougham turned into a beautiful park where there were winding drives, fountains, and flowers everywhere, and stopped in front of a lovely palace of white marble. The footman opened the door of the brougham, the little lady alighted, passed up the broad steps to the front entrance and disappeared within the exquisitely carved doors which were opened by a tiny butler in quaint livery.
With a feeling of disappointment, the girls saw her disappear from view. “Oh, isn’t she too tiny, sweet, and lovely for words!” exclaimed the Princess.
“How I wish we were not so large and could go inside to see how her palace is furnished,” said Ione.
“You have forgotten that our magic robes can make us large or small, as well as invisible,” replied the Princess.
“To be sure I had. Let us wish ourselves the size of the little lady and that we may float through one of her windows and be able to explore the palace unobserved and undisturbed.”
Once inside, the girls found themselves in a marble tessellated hall with walls lined with ancestral portraits and coats of mail. On either side of the hall were rooms through the portiers of which they caught glimpses of rugs of Oriental splendor, brocaded-satin furniture in solid gold frames, statuettes of Parian marble, while roses and white hyacinths were everywhere. At the farther end of the hall was the dining-room with its tapestried walls, old oaken furniture, crystal chandeliers, dainty silver, and sparkling cut glass.