"Perhaps I really _ought_ to keep it a little longer. How would it do if
I should tell you my secret some time next week?" he asked.

"Oh, no, no!" they cried, "tell it now!"

"Well, then, there's to be a fair 'way down in the village, a real
country fair, and I'm intending to hire a barge, and take all of the
_very_ young ladies over with me to see the fun. I mean ladies as young
as you, and Nancy, and Flossie. I shall invite all the wee ladies that
are stopping at the hotel, and I shall take all who accept."

He looked into their bright faces, and laughed when Dorothy said:

"As if _any_ little girl _wouldn't_ accept!"

"You mustn't expect it to be a grand affair. It will be, as I said, a
real old-fashioned country fair, but there will be a jolly ride over
there, and the return trip, and I fancy you will enjoy it all," he said,
"and I shall have the delight of giving pleasure."

A friend who had been looking for Uncle Harry, now appeared on the
winding path, a clump of large trees having hidden his approach.

The two young men started off for a long tramp, and Dorothy and Nancy
walked slowly back to the hotel.

"The prince _did_ look like Uncle Harry," said Nancy, "and the picture
of the naughty old fairy that enchanted the sleeping beauty, looks like
the lady that came this morning, and was so very cross."

"Then that _is_ the same one who stopped to ask the way, for she looked
just like that. I'll always think, every time I look at her, that she's
the black fairy."

And when they ran up on to the piazza, there sat the very person whom
they had been speaking of, looking somewhat cooler with her long
travelling cloak removed.

Her black gown was of some thin material, and just as the two little
girls ran up on to the piazza, she dropped the large, black fan that she
had been wielding.

Nancy, who was nearer to her than Dorothy, picked up the fan for her.
Without a smile, she took the fan, and they heard some slight sound.
Possibly it might have been a softly murmured word of thanks, but it did
not sound like it.

"She seems very strange," said Dorothy, "but perhaps she's still tired."

She was always unwilling to say that any one was wilfully rude or
disagreeable.

And now Aunt Charlotte, with Mrs. Dainty, came out to enjoy the fine
air, and Dorothy and Nancy ran to them to tell them of the treat that
Uncle Harry had in store for them.

"It's only a few days to wait, and isn't he kind to take us?"