ere just flat, round chocolates. We had two
each. Then we asked her her name, and she began, and when she began she
went on, and on, and on, till I thought she was never going to stop. H.
O. said she had fifty names, but Dicky is very good at figures, and he
says there were only eighteen. The first were Pauline, Alexandra, Alice,
and Mary was one, and Victoria, for we all heard that, and it ended
up with Hildegarde Cunigonde something or other, Princess of something
else.

When she'd done, H. O. said, 'That's jolly good! Say it again!' and she
did, but even then we couldn't remember it. We told her our names, but
she thought they were too short, so when it was Noel's turn he said he
was Prince Noel Camaralzaman Ivan Constantine Charlemagne James John
Edward Biggs Maximilian Bastable Prince of Lewisham, but when she asked
him to say it again of course he could only get the first two names
right, because he'd made it up as he went on.

So the Princess said, 'You are quite old enough to know your own name.'
She was very grave and serious.

She told us that she was the fifth cousin of Queen Victoria. We asked
who the other cousins were, but she did not seem to understand. She went
on and said she was seven times removed. She couldn't tell us what that
meant either, but Oswald thinks it means that the Queen's cousins are
so fond of her that they will keep coming bothering, so the Queen's
servants have orders to remove them. This little girl must have been
very fond of the Queen to try so often to see her, and to have been
seven times removed. We could see that it is considered something to
be proud of; but we thought it was hard on the Queen that her cousins
wouldn't let her alone.

Presently the little girl asked us where our maids and governesses were.

We told her we hadn't any just now. And she said--

'How pleasant! And did you come here alone?'

'Yes,' said Dora; 'we came across the Heath.'

'You are very fortunate,' said the little girl. She sat very upright on
the grass, with her fat little hands in her lap. 'I should like to go on
the Heath. There are donkeys there, with white saddle covers. I should
like to ride them, but my governess will not permit.'

'I'm glad we haven't a governess,' H. O. said. 'We ride the donkeys
whenever we have any pennies, and once I gave the man another penny to
make it gallop.'

'You are indeed fortunate!' said the Princess again, and when she looked
sad the shelves on her c