“Oh, sir,” cried Dame Drusilda, very much distressed, “why have you brought us poor, defenseless girls here?”
“Us, my venerable fairy!” said Dragonfel, most insultingly.
“Venerable!” repeated Dame Drusilda. “Oh, you nasty man!”
“How do you keep your age?” he sneered.
“Easy enough,” she replied indignantly. “I never give it away.”
As she spoke she made for him as though she meant to scratch his eyes out, but Queen Titania pulled her back.
“Don’t touch him, Dame Drusilda!” she cried, and then turned pleadingly to Dragonfel. “Why have you made me a prisoner, and carried me away from home in this way?”
“To prevent your marriage to the Brownie prince,” he said coldly.
“But we love each other, and would be so happy,” she said, while tears filled her pretty eyes. “Why do you oppose the marriage?”
“Because if this marriage were to take place,” he said, with an ugly frown, “it would make you all so powerful as to result in my undoing.”