“I don’t know,” said Girlie, “and I can’t think where I learned it; the words seemed to come into my head all at once. I’m afraid it’s very foolish,” she added apologetically.
“Oh! it’s positively absurd!” agreed Belinda, “but there, what can you expect from a person who has never been in Society? There goes the dinner gong,” she continued, at the sound of a gong from the next room, and, followed by Lucinda and Girlie, she led the way to the door at the side of the throne.
In the ante-room adjoining Girlie found the Doctor-in-law putting on a pair of white kid gloves.
“May I take you in to dinner?” he asked, bowing politely and offering his arm.
“Thank you very much,” said Girlie, laying her hand on his arm and feeling quite “grown up.”
“This way,” said the Doctor-in-law, pushing aside some heavy curtains and leading Girlie to a seat at the long table which reached the whole length of the handsome Dining Hall in which they now found themselves.
The Wallypug and most of the guests were already seated, and Girlie recognised a great many of the creatures she had seen in the other room, when she looked around.
“What are we waiting for?” asked the Doctor-in-law of one of the Footmen, of whom there seemed to be a great number. They were all lizards and dressed alike in handsome liveries of green and gold.
“There are not nearly enough plates to go round,” said the Footman in an anxious whisper, “and so we have had to send out to borrow some;” and he hurried away, counting the guests on his way, and then making a calculation on his fingers, and shaking his head mournfully all the while.
After everybody else was seated, the King’s Minstrel came strutting into the room, dangling his hands as usual, and nodding in a patronising kind of way to Girlie; he threw himself down in an unoccupied chair next to her.