| "A creature not too bright or good |
| For human nature's daily food." |
| Wordsworth. |
t seemed a very long time to the next afternoon, and if Liddy hadn't been the most unnoticing old woman in the world, she would certainly have seen that there was something unusual in our heads. We could think of nothing but our new friend the fairy, or "the other princess," as Gerald would call her. Who could she be? where had she come from? how—and this, perhaps, was the thing we wondered most about—how in the world did she know all about us, or our names, even down to our pet names, any way?
Then another thought was in my mind and Tib's. Grandpapa had told us to make no friends with the neighbours. Would it be disobeying him to go to meet the young lady in the saloon and play with her, as she had asked us?
"Is she a neighbour?" said Tib. "We don't know—we don't know if she lives there, or where she lives, or anything."
"We must ask her," I said; "any way, we must go and see her again to ask her. We must go to see her once, and we will tell her what grandpapa said."
"I think she is a fairy, and that she lives in Fairyland; and grandpapa didn't say we weren't to speak to fairies," said Gerald.
"Oh! how I wish Mr. Truro was here; we could ask him about it," I said.
"And there's another thing," said Tib: "we almost promised Mr. Truro we wouldn't say anything about the palace and all that to grandpapa just now—not till they came again. It's rather a muddle altogether, don't you think, Gussie?"
"I dare say she—we must get a name for her, Tib——"