strain on the sympathy to gaze too long on a mixture of
lion, rabbit, and woolly lamb, particularly when the rabbit part has
its mouth open and is snoring gently.

Besides, what could she do with him? She had two of them on her hands
now: the Countess and the Prince. Belvane was in an even better
position than before. She could now employ Udo to help her in her
plots against the Princess. "Grant to me so and so, or I'll keep the
enchantment for ever on his Royal Highness." And what could a poor
girl do?

Well, she would have to come to some decision in the future.
Meanwhile the difficulties of the moment were enough. The most
obvious difficulty was his bedroom. Was it quite the sort of room he
wanted now? Hyacinth realised suddenly that to be hostess to such a
collection of animals as Udo was would require all the tact she
possessed. Perhaps he would tell her what he wanted when he woke up.
Better let him sleep peacefully now.

She looked at him, smiled in spite of herself, and went quickly down
into the Palace.

CHAPTER XIII

"PINK" RHYMES WITH "THINK"

Udo awoke, slightly refreshed, and decided to take a firm line with
the Countess at once. He had no difficulty about finding his way down
to her. The Palace seemed to be full of servants, all apparently busy
about something which brought them for a moment in sight of the newly
arrived Prince, and then whisked them off, hand to mouth and shoulders
shaking. By one of these, with more control over her countenance than
the others, an annoyed Udo was led into Belvane's garden.

She was walking up and down the flagged walk between her lavender
hedges, and as he came in she stopped and rested her elbows on her
sundial, and looked mockingly at him, waiting for him to speak.
"Between the showers I mark the hours," said the sundial (on the
suggestion of Belvane one wet afternoon), but for the moment the
Countess was in the way.

"Ah, here we are," said Udo in rather a nasty voice.

"Here we are," said Belvane sweetly. "All of us."

Suddenly she began to laugh.

"Oh, Prince Udo," she said, "you'll be the death of me. Count me as
one more of your victims."

It is easy to be angry with any one who will laugh at you all the
time, but difficult to be effective; particularly when--but we need
not dwell upon Udo's handicap again.

"I don't see anything to laugh at," he said stiffly. "To intelligent
people the outside appearance is not everything."