"I think that is a good arrangement. The next question is, when? When shall we send the things there?"
"We must get the rooms cleaned. I will see about that. Then, Norton, the sooner the better; don't you think so?"
"How is it in the fairy stories?"
"Oh, it's all done with a breath there; that is one of the delightful things about it. You speak, and the genie comes; and you tell him what you want, and he goes and fetches it; there is no waiting. And yet, I don't know," Matilda added; "I don't wish this could be done in a breath."
"What?" said a voice close behind her. The two looked up, laughing, to see Mrs. Laval. She was laughing too.
"What is it, that is not to be done in a breath?"
"Furnishing a palace, mamma—(getting it cleaned first,) and setting up a princess."
Mrs. Laval wanted to hear about it, and gradually she slipped down on the grass beside Matilda, and drew an arm round her, while she listened to Norton's story. Norton made quite a story of it, and told his mother what Matilda had been doing the day before in Lilac Lane, and what schemes they had presently on hand. Mrs. Laval listened curiously.
"Dear, is it quite safe for you to go to such a place?" she asked Matilda then.
"Oh yes, ma'am."