into her by many elderly
but bespectacled gentlemen and ladies, was presently again enjoying her
new part of dispenser of information. Her cheeks were faintly flushed;
and her eyes were sparkling in an animated face.

In these interrogations and discussions the time had slipped away
unheeded by the interested trio. The crimson baroness had awakened,
missed her little charge, and waddled off into the house in search of
her. A slow search of the house and gardens revealed the fact that she
was not in them. As soon as this was clear the baroness fell into a
panic and insisted that the whole household should sally forth in
search of her.

The princess was earnestly engaged in an effort to make quite dear to
the Twins the exact nature of one of the obscure kinds of German
tartlet, a kind, indeed, only found in the principality of
Cassel-Nassau, where the keen ears of the Terror caught the sound of a
distant voice calling out.

He rose sharply to his feet and said: "Listen! There's some one
calling. I expect they've missed you and you'll have to be getting
back."

The princess rose reluctantly. Then her face clouded; and she said in
a tone of faint dismay: "Oh, dear! How annoyed the baroness will be!"

"You take a great deal too much notice of that baroness," said Erebus.

"But I have to; she's my--my _gouvernante_," said the princess.

"I don't see what good it is being a princess, if you do just what
baronesses tell you all the time," said Erebus coldly.

The princess looked at her rather helplessly; she had never thought of
rebelling.

"I don't think I should tell her that you've been with us. She
mightn't think we were good for you. Some people round here don't seem
to understand us," said the Terror suavely.

The princess looked from one to the other, hesitating with puckered
brow; and then, with a touch of appeal in her tone, she said, "Are you
coming to-morrow?"

The Twins looked at each other doubtfully. They had no plans for the
morrow; but they had hopes that Fortune would find them some more
exciting occupation than discussing Germany with one of its inhabitants.

At their hesitation the princess' face fell woefully; and the appeal in
it touched the Terror's heart.

"We should like to come very much," he said.

The face of the princess brightened; and her grateful eyes shone on him.

"I don't think I shall be able to come," said Erebus with the important
air of one burdened with many a