Teddy walked slowly down this hall, and as he walked a rosy glow seemed to move with him. He looked down to see what made it, and found that he was dressed in a tunic of rose-colored silk, such as he had never seen before, and it was fastened about the waist with a golden girdle. His feet were bare, but the air was so mildly warm that the marble did not chill him.
After a while, as he walked slowly and wonderingly down the hall, he turned a corner and found himself in another hall just like the first, only at one side there was a great crystal window, and sitting on a marble seat before it was the Counterpane Fairy herself. She sat quite still as though she were listening, and she paid no attention to Teddy.
He was sure it must be the Counterpane Fairy, for it looked like her, though she was quite large now; she looked as large as a real woman.
Teddy stood looking at her for a while, and waiting for her to see him, but she paid no attention, and so at last he whispered, “Counterpane Fairy!”
“Hush!” said she. “I’m listening.”
Then Teddy listened too, and as soon as he did he heard a sound of music like that of the music-box in the nursery at home, only it was very much clearer, and sweeter, and fainter.
It seemed to come from outside the crystal window, and looking through it Teddy saw that outside was the most beautiful garden he had ever seen. The grass of the garden was a silvery green; and the paths were white. The leaves of the tress were lined with silver, and the branches hung with shining fruit. There were lilies growing beside the paths, and in the centre of the garden a fountain leaped and fell back into a marble basin. The water sparkled as though it were made of diamonds, and as Teddy listened he knew that the music he heard was the voice of the fountain.
Presently it ceased and then the fairy turned to him and smiled.
“Oh, Counterpane Fairy!” cried Teddy, “may I go out into that garden?”
“That I don’t know,” said the fairy, “but if you want to get there the best thing for you to do is find Starlein and Silverling, for they are the only ones who can show you the way into the garden.”