"The time has come for the party to finish," announced the
Pleasant-Faced Lion, "but before it is ended——"
"Has it got to end now?" Ridgwell asked wistfully.
"Everything has to come to an end some time," replied the Lion quietly, "from ices and parties to empires and the world. However," he added encouragingly, "one can always look forward to some possible and pleasant continuation of almost everything, although, perhaps, on different, not to say advanced lines. Before you children go I shall be able to show you the most wonderfully coloured transformation scene you have ever witnessed. Watch carefully the long wall of the Pavilion which you are facing," commanded the Lion.
Carry-on-Merry romped up at this moment laughing as merrily as when the evening commenced.
"Time?" inquired Carry-on-Merry.
The Pleasant-Faced Lion nodded.
"Yes, now," he said.
Slowly the golden wall and the roof with its masses of brilliantly hanging flowers seemed to fade away.
The children knew it was Trafalgar Square they were looking at once again, yet a Trafalgar Square transformed out of all resemblance to its usual familiar aspect.
As the walls appeared to drop before their eyes a brilliant golden bungalow palace with the children dressed as Scarlet Beefeaters grouped down its shining steps glimmered through the rose-pink light in which they beheld it. Surely it could not be the National Gallery!