(The CHILDREN applaud; they have been interfering repeatedly.)
KING. Come, come, proud youth, you feel no palps at all?
PRINCE. Not a palp. Perhaps for a moment this one’s nose—that one’s cock of the head—But it has passed.
(He drearily resumes his rocking chair. No one seems to know what to do next.)
MARIE (to the rescue). The two Ugly Sisters! Monsieur le Roi, the two Ugly Sisters! (She points derisively at the winners.)
KING (badgered). How did these children get their invites?
(This is another thing that no one knows. Once more the room rocks, and MR. BODIE passes across it as if looking for some one. Then a growing clamour is heard outside. Bugles sound. The LORD MAYOR goes and returns with strange news.)
LORD MAYOR. Another competitor, my King. Make way for the Lady Cinderella!
KING. Cinderella? I don’t know her.