'I am merely inquiring where you are, my dear. I have heard of people's being over head and ears.'
'Only hearsay evidence, sir?' said Miss Hazel recklessly. But then she was not going to stand up and be shot at!
'I should like to know, merely as a satisfaction to my own mind, whether the quest is ended, Miss Hazel? Has Cinderella's glass slipper been fitted on? or has Quickear seized the singing bird and the golden water?'
'Princes are scarce!' said the girl derisively, but not without a rising blush.
'The true one not found yet, my dear?' said Mr. Falkirk with an amused glance across the table. 'What is to be our next move in search of him?'
'That is one way of putting it,' said Wych Hazel. 'I should think, sir, you had taken lessons of your devotee, Miss Fisher.'
'I am glad you don't,' said Mr. Falkirk earnestly. 'Miss Hazel, I should prefer that when such princesses are in the parlour, Cinderella should keep to her kitchen. It is the court end in such a case.'
Kitty Fisher's name brought up visions. Hazel was silent.
'Do you ever hear from Chickaree?' her guardian asked presently.
'No one to write, sir, but Mrs. Bywank,—and she, you know, is not a scribe. I understand that the kitten is well.'