'

The man led them through the dark arch into the town. And it was very
different from London. For one thing, everything in London seems to be
patched up out of odds and ends, but these houses seemed to have been
built by people who liked the same sort of things. Not that they were
all alike, for though all were squarish, they were of different sizes,
and decorated in all sorts of different ways, some with paintings in
bright colours, some with black and silver designs. There were terraces,
and gardens, and balconies, and open spaces with trees. Their guide took
them to a little house in a back street, where a kind-faced woman sat
spinning at the door of a very dark room.

'Here,' he said, 'just lend these children a mantle each, so that they
can go about and see the place till the Queen's audience begins. You
leave that wool for a bit, and show them round if you like. I must be
off now.'

The woman did as she was told, and the four children, wrapped in fringed
mantles, went with her all about the town, and oh! how I wish I had time
to tell you all that they saw. It was all so wonderfully different
from anything you have ever seen. For one thing, all the houses were
dazzlingly bright, and many of them covered with pictures. Some had
great creatures carved in stone at each side of the door. Then the
people--there were no black frock-coats and tall hats; no dingy coats
and skirts of good, useful, ugly stuffs warranted to wear. Everyone's
clothes were bright and beautiful with blue and scarlet and green and
gold.

The market was brighter than you would think anything could be. There
were stalls for everything you could possibly want--and for a great many
things that if you wanted here and now, want would be your master. There
were pineapples and peaches in heaps--and stalls of crockery and glass
things, beautiful shapes and glorious colours, there were stalls for
necklaces, and clasps, and bracelets, and brooches, for woven stuffs,
and furs, and embroidered linen. The children had never seen half so
many beautiful things together, even at Liberty's. It seemed no time at
all before the woman said--

'It's nearly time now. We ought to be getting on towards the palace.
It's as well to be early.' So they went to the palace, and when they got
there it was more splendid than anything they had seen yet.

For it was glowing with colours, and with gold and silver and black and
white--like some magnificent embroidery. Flight