l just have time to take a look at the
Strained Relations, and then I must get back and help Avrillia vanish
the children."

He led Sara to a distant corner of the uncommon that was fenced off
from the rest by a high wire netting. It looked rather like the high
nets about a tennis-court, except that it was made of silver wire,
with a mesh as fine as a milk-strainer. Inside the wire, in a sort of
little private park, she could see a number of very haughty-looking
persons moving about.

"Don't speak to them," said Pirlaps, as they drew near. "They're
entirely too snobbish to be spoken to."

Sara approached in awe, and they stood gazing at the pale,
supercilious-looking creatures, who returned their gaze through
monocles, lorgnettes, and other contemptuous media.

"You see," explained Pirlaps, "nobody speaks to them. Every time they
go in or out, they pass through the strainer, and that strains out all
of their red corpuscles and leaves only the blue. That's why they are
so superior and exclusive. Of course, too, it makes them very thin,
and gives them that sheer, transparent look." And, indeed, Sara
noticed that she could see quite through one of the thinnest ones, who
wore a very high-necked dress buttoned in the back.

Pirlaps was now growing anxious to be at home, so after saying good-by
to the important personages on the Posts of Honor, they started back.

As they drew near, they saw Avrillia in the rose-garden near the
balcony, looking very lovely as she moved among the flowers.

"Ah," said Pirlaps, "she's already vanished them. She's gathering
rose-leaves for tomorrow's poems."

As he spoke, Avrillia, looking up, waved a blue rose to them, and
disappeared within the house. In a moment she reappeared, wearing the
sweetest smile Sara had ever seen.

Pirlaps looked greatly pleased and touched. And no wonder; for
Avrillia was coming out to meet him, bringing him his step with her
own hands.

Chapter IV
The Invaders

When Sara dropped the curtains behind her the next morning she paused
in horror, with her hand poised above the dimple-holder. What had
happened to her lovely Garden in the night?

It looked exactly as her own little garden was accustomed to look
three days after a hard freeze. Blighted--that was the word: it was
blighted. The leaves hung limp and brown from the trees; the blue
plush grass, and even the blue bark of the Gugo