"Now," continued the mannikin, "as you are an emperor, I really think that you might order some wings for us. What do you say?"
"A Red Emperor," observed the butterfly; "but after all there's not much in it. It is, you see, all in the name. And I haven't really any power whatever to give wings or anything else. For you must know that I am under orders myself."
The mannikin looked at the Red Emperor in surprise.
"And you an Emperor?" said he. "Hasn't this scarlet runner sprung up so that we might run up it to speak to you?"
"That may or may not be," began the Emperor. "But——"
II.
"But what?"
No, the Red Emperor was not speaking now. Somehow the butterfly and the mannikins had got into the book that Paulina was reading to Peter.
Peter was sitting up in bed; he had also a book in his hand, and he threw it down and sprang out of bed, crying out—
"But what a splendid butterfly!"