In Brief Authority Part 27

"Those ideals again!" said the exasperated Fairy. "You'll drive me out of all patience directly! But there--I've said all I could, and if you _will_ be pig-headed, you must. And now I'll ask you to go away, as I'm really not well enough to bear any more conversation."

He had not been gone more than ten minutes when there was another knock at her door, and this time it was Princess Edna herself who entered.

"So it's _you_, is it?" snapped the Court G.o.dmother, with none of her customary urbanity. And then, recollecting the necessity of keeping up appearances, threw in a belated "my dear." "Well, I hear you are taking time before you put Mirliflor out of suspense, but I presume you've already decided to accept him?"

"That's what I came to consult you about, Court G.o.dmother," replied Edna. "I don't feel that I--he is at all a person I could ever be happy with. He is not on the same intellectual plane with me--we should have nothing whatever in common. He seems to have none of the qualities that would make me respect and look up to a man."

Relieved though she was, the Fairy still resented any disparagement of her favourite G.o.dson from such a quarter.

"Hoity-toity!" she exclaimed--an expression which, if it ever was popular, is no longer used by anyone but Fairy G.o.dmothers--and even the Fairy only indulged in it under extreme provocation. "Let me tell you that Mirliflor is not generally regarded as ineligible. But, no doubt, my dear," she added acidly, "you have every right to be fastidious."

She was greatly tempted to let her know that Mirliflor would be anything but broken-hearted by a refusal, but prudence warned her that she had better not. "And may I ask what you propose to say to him?"

"Oh," said Edna, "I suppose I shall have to tell him to-night that I find I don't like him enough to marry him."

"And give everybody to understand that he is personally displeasing to you! Indeed you will not!" said the old Fairy imperiously. "_Other_ persons' feelings have to be considered as well as your own. _Mine_, for one. Mirliflor would never forgive me for exposing him to such humiliation. Nor would his father, King Tournesol, for that matter, and I can't afford to quarrel with either of them. You can't get rid of an unwelcome suitor like that--at all events, not in Marchenland!"

"Can't I?" said Edna. "Then how _am_ I to get rid of him?"

"A Princess of high breeding," replied the Fairy, "finds some means of tempering her refusal so as to avoid wounding her suitor's pride; and I may tell you Mirliflor has more than his share of that. The usual method here is to accept him, on condition that he succeeds in answering some question so difficult that it is no disgrace if he fails to answer it."

"Do you mean something in the nature of a riddle?" asked Edna.

"Well, a riddle will do. Yes, there are precedents for that. A riddle would be quite in accordance with Court etiquette. Ask him a riddle if you like."

"I'm afraid I am not very familiar with riddles," said Edna. "I have never found them particularly amusing myself. But I must try and remember one. It needn't be so very difficult, because he doesn't seem to me clever enough to guess _any_ riddle."

"Quite clever enough not to try!" was on the tip of the Fairy's tongue, though she did not say it. "I've no doubt, my dear," she replied, "that any riddle you may ask Mirliflor will be quite beyond his power to answer."

"Thank you very much for your advice, Court G.o.dmother," said Edna. "I daresay I shall be able to remember a riddle of some sort by this evening."

The Fairy felt that she had extricated herself from her dilemma with considerable tact and ingenuity. Not only had she delivered her G.o.dson from the slight of being summarily rejected by this upstart girl, but she had saved herself from all necessity to make any compromising disclosures.

"Yes," she told herself complacently, "I've really got myself and Mirliflor out of it very neatly indeed. I mayn't be quite as quick-witted as I was in my prime--but I'm not in my dotage _just_ yet!"

CHAPTER XII

UNWELCOME ANNOUNCEMENTS

Princess Edna took the earliest opportunity of acting on the Fairy Vogelflug's suggestion. At the conclusion of the banquet that evening, she requested King Sidney to order the silver trumpets to be flourished, and when this had been done and an expectant hush fell upon the a.s.sembly, she rose. After regarding the Prince, who sat on her right, with a graciousness which, enhanced as it was by her _pince-nez_, struck terror into his very soul, she began in a high, clear tone:

"You all know, I think," she said, "that his Royal Highness Prince Mirliflor of Clairdelune has done me the great honour of asking me to be his wife, and that I have promised him my answer this evening. That answer I am now about to give. Prince Mirliflor, you have impressed me so favourably that, although I had previously no thought of marrying, I have decided to accept you." At this the whole Court broke out in frantic and rapturous applause, for they had been most anxious for the Prince to succeed in his project--if only for the reason that it would entail the removal of Princess "Four-eyes" to Clairdelune. The King exclaimed, "Quite right! Sensible girl!" and Queen Selina a.s.sured the Prince that he had won a treasure. Clarence, who had taken a liking to his new brother-in-law, which was not entirely reciprocated, rose and clapped him heartily on the back, while the old Court Chamberlain could scarcely contain his pride and joy. Edna held up her hand for silence.

"Wait, please!" she said; "I haven't finished. I said I would accept you, Prince Mirliflor, and so I will--on condition that you are able to give the correct answer to a question I am about to ask you."

There was a murmur of disappointment at this, though it was generally recognised that the Princess's action was quite _en regle_. The Prince, feeling that it was at least a reprieve, begged her to put the question without keeping him in any further suspense.

"My question is this," said Edna: "Why did the sausage roll?"

"Hang it all, Edna!" cried Clarence, "you're not going to chuck him unless he can guess a rotten riddle like that!"

"Of _course_ not!" said her anxious Mother. "Don't be alarmed, dear Prince Mirliflor. She doesn't mean it _seriously_. It--it's a little joke, that's all!"

"It's not a joke, Mother," said Edna; "I'm perfectly serious. I am sure Prince Mirliflor is so clever that he will have no difficulty in guessing the riddle. If he can't--well, I shall be very sorry, but--I shall not be able to marry him."

"Alas, Princess!" said Mirliflor, "but it pa.s.ses my poor wit to discover why the sausage rolled."

"Will your Majesties pardon me," struck in the Court Chamberlain, "if I humbly offer a suggestion. Such a problem as her Royal Highness has propounded cannot be solved in a moment. It is only just to his Royal Highness Prince Mirliflor that he should be given a night to reflect before delivering his answer."

"Certainly," said the King; "you must see that yourself, Edna. Give him a chance--every chance!"

"I have no objection, Father," said Edna. "The Prince shall have till to-morrow morning to think it over--but I can give him no longer."

"It's an infernal shame, Mirliflor!" said Clarence. "I haven't an idea why the bally sausage rolled, or I'd tell you, dear old chap!"

"I am sure you would, my dear Prince Clarence!" Mirliflor a.s.sured him; "but, believe me, I am none the less grateful to you."

Queen Selina did all she could think of to persuade her daughter to alter her decision, and, when this failed, to extract the answer to the momentous conundrum, which Edna knew her mother too well to confide to her, so that at length she was obliged to take up her bedroom taper and retreat, with a Parthian prediction that such folly would be bitterly repented in the future.

Edna's next visitor was the Court G.o.dmother, on whose entrance she at once informed her waiting-women that she would not require their further services that night. "Well, G.o.dmother," she began, as soon as they were alone together, "I did as you advised, you see. And--you don't think Prince Mirliflor can possibly find out the answer, do you?"

"My good girl," said the Fairy, "I'd defy the Astrologer Royal himself to find it out, if he consulted all the stars and all his mystic books into the bargain! How the d.i.c.kens did you come to invent such a riddle as that?"

"I didn't invent it," said Edna; "I heard it a long time ago--at the Theatre--in some silly play. I've forgotten what the play was about--but I remembered the riddle."

"Are you sure you remember the answer? I have heard of sausages _talking_ occasionally, and I daresay they can roll, but I fail to see what intelligible reason _any_ sausage could give for doing it."

"It's a catch," explained Edna. "It's like this. Why did the sausage roll? Because it saw the jam-_turnover_. _Now_ do you see?"

"I can't say I do, my dear. It seems senseless to _me_. But that's all the better--the more idiotic it is, the less chance of its being guessed. Yes, on the whole, I don't think you could have thought of a better one."

Shortly afterwards Prince Mirliflor, just as he was about to extinguish the flambeaux and turn into bed, was startled to see his door opening by some mysterious means. He was more startled still when the figure of the old Court Chamberlain suddenly materialised in the centre of the room.

"Your Royal Highness will forgive my intrusion," said the Baron, "when I explain the object of this visit. My reason for suggesting that the Princess should grant you a night to answer her question was that I felt convinced that she would be unable to refrain from telling it to some person--her mother, most probably. So I resolved by means of this" (and here he exhibited a small skull-cap of purple silk) "to penetrate unseen to the Princess's apartments and overhear her conversation. To my disappointment, she would reveal nothing to Her Majesty, but by-and-by the Court G.o.dmother paid the Princess a visit, in the course of which I, remaining, of course, invisible, succeeded in learning the secret on which your Royal Highness's happiness and the hopes of all Marchenland depend. The answer, it seems--though I must admit I can make little of it myself--is----"

"Stop, Baron!" interrupted Prince Mirliflor, "I refuse--do you hear?--I refuse to take advantage of any information obtained in such a disreputable manner--I insist on your leaving this room at once without another word!"

"But, sire, hear me! This is not a case for being over-scrupulous. In love, as in war, all is fair. And the answer is--'Because----'"

"_Will_ you get out?" cried the Prince, stopping both his ears. "I won't hear you. I can't, as you can see. And if you don't clear out at once, I'll strike this gong for the guard!"

The Baron, seeing that he could do no more, hastily put on his cap again and disappeared. "What a pity," he thought, "that such a fine young Prince should be so priggish when his own interests are concerned!"

But although Mirliflor's code of honour was undoubtedly high, it is quite possible that he might not have stopped his ears quite so hermetically if Princess Edna had only borne a closer resemblance to his vision of her.

As it was, even if the Baron had forced him to hear the answer, it would have made no difference, since he had not the least intention of profiting by it, and so he slept soundly, with no apprehensions concerning what the morrow might bring him.