“Oh, you naughty! And David killed him in the Bible. I’ll tell you a story about giants.”
“I don’t think I am interested in giants.”
“Princesses, then, beautiful princesses, and cruel people trying to be unkind to them, and princes running away and marrying them, and living happily ever afterwards.”
“That’s the style for my money! Fire away, and let us have plenty of adventure. I’ll lean back in this chair and listen to you.”
Viva moistened her lips, swallowed rapidly once or twice, and began her story in a shrill, high-pitched voice.
“Once upon a long, long time ago, there was a princess, and she was the most beautiful princess that was ever born. Everyone said so, and her face was as white as snow, and her hair as yellow as—”
“Excuse me—brown!”
“No, it wasn’t brown. Bright, curly, golden, down to her—”
“Then she couldn’t have been the most beautiful princess in the world, because I’ve seen the lady and her hair is brown.”
Jack stroked his moustache with a look of lamb-like innocence, and Sylvia could have shaken herself with annoyance because she could not help blushing and looking stupid and self-conscious. Pixie’s melodious gurgle sounded from the background, and Viva cried severely—