he fairies who protected
her could not prevent him from doing. Her only hope was that he would
hide her somewhere so that she should have time to escape before
sunrise; for after sunrise all her powers of moving or speaking would
desert her and she would be nothing but a wax doll again. She need not
have been afraid, for the Prince did not mean to waste any more time
than he could help; and the next moment she was being carried swiftly
out of the room under his arm. Downstairs ran the little Prince, with
his hand over the Lady Emmelina's mouth to prevent her from screaming;
and along the marble passages he hastened, until he came to a little
door that led into the garden, and this he unlocked with the diamond
key that usually hung on the nail on the nursery wall. It is not
pleasant to run without shoes along a gravel path, and Prince
Perfection soon turned aside on to the lawn, and trotted over the grass
in search of a hiding place for the Lady Emmelina. A large white stone
lay in the middle of the lawn and gleamed in the moonlight. The Prince
did not remember having seen it there before; indeed, it was not likely
that the royal gardeners would have allowed it to remain in such a
place for a moment. He stooped down and rolled it on one side, and
found that it covered a neat round hole lined with green moss. It was
the very place for the Lady Emmelina; and he laid her gently in the
very middle of it.

"I hope you will not be very cramped," said Prince Perfection, politely.

Lady Emmelina lay motionless on the mossy ground, and stared at the
moon. No one would have thought that she was the same dolly who had
screamed so angrily in the nursery ten minutes ago.

"It is the nicest place I could have found in the whole garden,"
continued Prince Perfection a little anxiously. After all, she was a
very beautiful doll, and she had come straight from Fairyland.

Still the Lady Emmelina stared intently at the moon, with her large
blue eyes.

"I should never have thought of putting you anywhere if you had not
bewitched the Princess," declared Prince Perfection, feeling still more
uncomfortable. It was not easy to go on apologising to some one who
persisted in staring at the moon just as though no one was speaking to
her.

"Why did you bewitch the Princess Pansy?" cried the little Prince. "If
you will promise not to bewitch her any more, I will take you straight
back to the nursery."

But although he waited eage