CHAPTER II
WHEN you are young so many things are difficult to believe, and yet thedullest people will tell you that they are true--such things, forinstance, as that the earth goes round the sun, and that it is not flatbut round. But the things that seem really likely, like fairy-tales andmagic, are, so say the grown-ups, not true at all. Yet they are so easyto believe, especially when you see them happening. And, as I am alwaystelling you, the most wonderful things happen to all sorts of people,only you never hear about them because the people think that no one willbelieve their stories, and so they don't tell them to any one except me.And they tell me, because they know that I can believe anything.
When Jimmy had awakened the Sleeping Princess, and she had invited thethree children to go with her to her palace and get something to eat,they all knew quite surely that they had come into a place of magichappenings. And they walked in a slow procession along the grass towardsthe castle. The Princess went first, and Kathleen carried her shiningtrain; then came Jimmy, and Gerald came last. They were all quite surethat they had walked right into the middle of a fairy tale, and theywere the more ready to believe it because they were so tired and hungry.They were, in fact, so hungry and tired that they hardly noticed wherethey were going, or observed the beauties of the formal gardens throughwhich the pink-silk Princess was leading them. They were in a sort ofdream, from which they only partially awakened to find themselves in abig hall, with suits of armour and old flags round the walls, the skinsof beasts on the floor, and heavy oak tables and benches ranged alongit.
The Princess entered, slow and stately, but once inside she twitched hersheeny train out of Jimmy's hand and turned to the three.
"You just wait here a minute," she said, "and mind you don't talk whileI'm away. This castle is crammed with magic, and I don't know what willhappen if you talk." And with that, picking up the thick goldy-pinkfolds under her arms, she ran out, as Jimmy said afterwards, "mostunprincesslike," showing as she ran black stockings and black strapshoes.
Jimmy wanted very much to say that he didn't believe anything wouldhappen, only he was afraid something would happen if he did, so hemerely made a face and put out his tongue. The others pretended not tosee this, which was much more crushing than anything they could havesaid. So they sat in silence, and Gerald ground the heel of his bootupon the marble floor. Then the Princess came back, very slowly andkicking her long skirts in front of her at every step. She could nothold them up now because of the tray she carried.
It was not a silver tray, as you might have expected, but an oblong tinone. She set it down noisily on the end of the long table and breathed asigh of relief.
"Oh! it _was_ heavy," she said. I don't know what fairy feast thechildren's fancy had been busy with. Anyhow, this was nothing like it.The heavy tray held a loaf of bread, a lump of cheese, and a brown jugof water. The rest of its heaviness was just plates and mugs and knives.
"Come along," said the Princess hospitably. "I couldn't find anythingbut bread and cheese--but it doesn't matter, because everything's magichere, and unless you have some dreadful secret fault the bread andcheese will turn into anything you like. What _would_ you like?" sheasked Kathleen.
"Roast chicken," said Kathleen, without hesitation.
The pinky Princess cut a slice of bread and laid it on a dish. "Thereyou are," she said, "roast chicken. Shall I carve it, or will you?"
"You, please," said Kathleen, and received a piece of dry bread on aplate.
"Green peas?" asked the Princess, cut a piece of cheese and laid itbeside the bread.
Kathleen began to eat the bread, cutting it up with knife and fork asyou would eat chicken. It was no use owning that she didn't see anychicken and peas, or anything but cheese and dry bread, because thatwould be owning that she had some dreadful secret fault.
"If I have, it _is_ a secret, even from me," she told herself.
The others asked for roast beef and cabbage--and got it, she supposed,though to her it only looked like dry bread and Dutch cheese.
"I _do_ wonder what my dreadful secret fault is," she thought, as thePrincess remarked that, as for her, she could fancy a slice of roastpeacock. "This one," she added, lifting a second mouthful of dry breadon her fork, "is quite delicious."
"It's a game, isn't it?" asked Jimmy suddenly.
"What's a game?" asked the Princess, frowning.
"Pretending it's beef--the bread and cheese, I mean."
"A game? But it _is_ beef. Look at it," said the Princess, opening hereyes very wide.
"Yes, of course," said Jimmy feebly. "I was only joking."
"IT'S A GAME, ISN'T IT?" ASKED JIMMY.]
Bread and cheese is not perhaps so good as roast beef or chicken orpeacock (I'm not sure about the peacock. I never tasted peacock, didyou?); but bread and cheese is, at any rate, very much better thannothing when you have gone on having nothing since breakfast(gooseberries and gingerbeer hardly count) and it is long past yourproper dinner-time. Every one ate and drank and felt much better.
"Now," said the Princess, brushing the breadcrumbs off her green silklap, "if you're sure you won't have any more meat you can come and seemy treasures. Sure you won't take the least bit more chicken? No? Thenfollow me."
She got up and they followed her down the long hall to the end where thegreat stone stairs ran up at each side and joined in a broad flightleading to the gallery above. Under the stairs was a hanging oftapestry.
"Beneath this arras," said the Princess, "is the door leading to myprivate apartments." She held the tapestry up with both hands, for itwas heavy, and showed a little door that had been hidden by it.
"The key," she said, "hangs above."
And so it did, on a large rusty nail.
"Put it in," said the Princess, "and turn it."
Gerald did so, and the great key creaked and grated in the lock.
"Now push," she said; "push hard, all of you."
They pushed hard, all of them. The door gave way, and they fell overeach other into the dark space beyond.
The Princess dropped the curtain and came after them, closing the doorbehind her.
"Look out!" she said; "look out! there are two steps down."
"Thank you," said Gerald, rubbing his knee at the bottom of the steps."We found that out for ourselves."
"I'm sorry," said the Princess, "but you can't have hurt yourselvesmuch. Go straight on. There aren't any more steps."
They went straight on--in the dark.
"When you come to the door just turn the handle and go in. Then standstill till I find the matches. I know where they are."
"Did they have matches a hundred years ago?" asked Jimmy.
"I meant the tinder-box," said the Princess quickly. "We always calledit the matches. Don't you? Here, let me go first."
She did, and when they had reached the door she was waiting for themwith a candle in her hand. She thrust it on Gerald.
"Hold it steady," she said, and undid the shutters of a long window, sothat first a yellow streak and then a blazing great oblong of lightflashed at them and the room was full of sunshine.
"It makes the candle look quite silly," said Jimmy.
"So it does," said the Princess, and blew out the candle. Then she tookthe key from the outside of the door, put it in the inside key-hole, andturned it.
SHE WAS WAITING FOR THEM WITH A CANDLE IN HER HAND.]
The room they were in was small and high. Its domed ceiling was of deepblue with gold stars painted on it. The walls were of wood, panelledand carved, and there was no furniture in it whatever.
"This," said the Princess, "is my treasure chamber."
"But where," asked Kathleen politely, "_are_ the treasures?"
"Don't you see them?" asked the Princess.
"No, we don't," said Jimmy bluntly. "You don't come thatbread-and-cheese game with me--not twice over, you don't!"
"If you _really_ don't see them," said the Princess, "I suppose I shallhave to say the charm. Shut your ey
es, please. And give me your word ofhonour you won't look till I tell you, and that you'll never tell anyone what you've seen."
Their words of honour were something that the children would rather nothave given just then, but they gave them all the same, and shut theireyes tight.
"Wiggadil yougadoo begadee leegadeeve nowgadow?" said the Princessrapidly; and they heard the swish of her silk train moving across theroom. Then there was a creaking, rustling noise.
"She's locking us in!" cried Jimmy.
"Your word of honour," gasped Gerald.
"Oh, do be quick!" moaned Kathleen.
"You may look," said the voice of the Princess. And they looked. Theroom was not the same room, yet--yes, the starry-vaulted blue ceilingwas there, and below it half a dozen feet of the dark panelling, butbelow that the walls of the room blazed and sparkled with white and blueand red and green and gold and silver. Shelves ran round the room, andon them were gold cups and silver dishes, and platters and goblets setwith gems, ornaments of gold and silver, tiaras of diamonds, necklacesof rubies, strings of emeralds and pearls, all set out in unimaginablesplendour against a background of faded blue velvet. It was like theCrown jewels that you see when your kind uncle takes you to the Tower,only there seemed to be far more jewels than you or any one else hasever seen together at the Tower or anywhere else.
The three children remained breathless, open-mouthed, staring at thesparkling splendours all about them, while the Princess stood, her armstretched out in a gesture of command, and a proud smile on her lips.
"My word!" said Gerald, in a low whisper. But no one spoke out loud.They waited as if spellbound for the Princess to speak.
She spoke.
"What price bread-and-cheese games now?" she asked triumphantly. "Can Ido magic, or can't I?"
"You can; oh, you can!" said Kathleen.
"May we--may we _touch_?" asked Gerald.
"All that is mine is yours," said the Princess, with a generous wave ofher brown hand, and added quickly, "Only, of course, you mustn't takeanything away with you."
"We're not thieves!" said Jimmy. The others were already busy turningover the wonderful things on the blue velvet shelves.
"Perhaps not," said the Princess, "but you're a very unbelieving littleboy. You think I can't see inside you, but I can. _I_ know what you'vebeen thinking."
"What?" asked Jimmy.
"Oh, you know well enough," said the Princess. "You're thinking aboutthe bread and cheese that I changed into beef, and about your secretfault. I say, let's all dress up and you be princes and princesses too."
"To crown our hero," said Gerald, lifting a gold crown with a cross onthe top, "was the work of a moment." He put the crown on his head, andadded a collar of SS and a zone of sparkling emeralds, which would notquite meet round his middle. He turned from fixing it by an ingeniousadaptation of his belt to find the others already decked with diadems,necklaces, and rings.
"How splendid you look!" said the Princess, "and how I wish your clotheswere prettier. What ugly clothes people wear nowadays! A hundred yearsago----"
Kathleen stood quite still with a diamond bracelet raised in her hand.
"I say," she said. "The King and Queen?"
"_What_ King and Queen?" asked the Princess.
"Your father and mother, your sorrowing parents," said Kathleen."They'll have waked up by now. Won't they be wanting to see you, after ahundred years, you know?"
"Oh--ah--yes," said the Princess slowly. "I embraced my rejoicingparents when I got the bread and cheese. They're having their dinner.They won't expect me yet. Here," she added, hastily putting a rubybracelet on Kathleen's arm, "see how splendid that is!"
Kathleen would have been quite content to go on all day trying ondifferent jewels and looking at herself in the little silver-framedmirror that the Princess took from one of the shelves, but the boys weresoon weary of this amusement.
"Look here," said Gerald, "if you're sure your father and mother won'twant you, let's go out and have a jolly good game of something. Youcould play besieged castles awfully well in that maze--unless you can doany more magic tricks."
"You forget," said the Princess, "I'm grown up. I don't play games. AndI don't like to do too much magic at a time, it's so tiring. Besides,it'll take us ever so long to put all these things back in their properplaces."
It did. The children would have laid the jewels just anywhere; but thePrincess showed them that every necklace, or ring, or bracelet had itsown home on the velvet--a slight hollowing in the shelf beneath, so thateach stone fitted into its own little nest.
KATHLEEN LOOKING AT HERSELF IN THE LITTLE SILVER-FRAMEDMIRROR.]
As Kathleen was fitting the last shining ornament into its proper place,she saw that part of the shelf near it held, not bright jewels, butrings and brooches and chains, as well as queer things that she did notknow the names of, and all were of dull metal and odd shapes.
"What's all this rubbish?" she asked.
"Rubbish, indeed!" said the Princess. "Why those are _all_ magic things!This bracelet--any one who wears it has got to speak the truth. Thischain makes you as strong as ten men; if you wear this spur your horsewill go a mile a minute; or if you're walking it's the same asseven-league boots."
"What does this brooch do?" asked Kathleen, reaching out her hand. ThePrincess caught her by the wrist.
"You mustn't touch," she said; "if any one but me touches them all themagic goes out at once and never comes back. That brooch will give youany wish you like."
"And this ring?" Jimmy pointed.
"Oh, that makes you invisible."
"What's this?" asked Gerald, showing a curious buckle.
"Oh, that undoes the effect of all the other charms."
"Do you mean _really_?" Jimmy asked. "You're not just kidding?"
"Kidding indeed!" repeated the Princess scornfully. "I should havethought I'd shown you enough magic to prevent you speaking to a Princesslike _that_!"
"I say," said Gerald, visibly excited. "You might show us how some ofthe things act. Couldn't you give us each a wish?"
The Princess did not at once answer. And the minds of the three playedwith granted wishes--brilliant yet thoroughly reasonable--the kind ofwish that never seems to occur to people in fairy tales when theysuddenly get a chance to have their three wishes granted.
"No," said the Princess suddenly, "no; I can't give wishes to _you_, itonly gives me wishes. But I'll let you see the ring make _me_ invisible.Only you must shut your eyes while I do it."
They shut them.
"Count fifty," said the Princess, "and then you may look. And then youmust shut them again, and count fifty, and I'll reappear."
Gerald counted, aloud. Through the counting one could hear a creaking,rustling sound.
"Forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty!" said Gerald, and theyopened their eyes.
They were alone in the room. The jewels had vanished and so had thePrincess.
"She's gone out by the door, of course," said Jimmy, but the door waslocked.
"That _is_ magic," said Kathleen breathlessly.
"Maskelyne and Devant can do _that_ trick," said Jimmy. "And I want mytea."
"Your tea!" Gerald's tone was full of contempt. "The lovely Princess,"he went on, "reappeared as soon as our hero had finished counting fifty.One, two, three, four----"
Gerald and Kathleen had both closed their eyes. But somehow Jimmyhadn't. He didn't mean to cheat, he just forgot. And as Gerald's countreached twenty he saw a panel under the window open slowly.
"Her," he said to himself. "I _knew_ it was a trick!" and at once shuthis eyes, like an honourable little boy.
On the word "fifty" six eyes opened. And the panel was closed and therewas no Princess.
"She hasn't pulled it off this time," said Gerald.
"Perhaps you'd better count again," said Kathleen.
"I believe there's a cupboard under the window," said Jimmy, "and she'shidden in it. Secret panel, you know."
"You looked! that's cheating," said the voice of the Princess so closeto his ear that he quite jumped.
"I didn't cheat."
"Where on earth---- What ever----" said all three together. For stillthere was no Princess to be seen.
"Come back visible, Princess dear," said Kathleen. "Shall we shut oureyes and count again?"
"Don't be silly!" said the voice of the Princess, and it sounded verycross.
"We're _not_ silly," said Jimmy, and his voice was cross too. "Why can'tyou come back and have done with it? You know you're only hiding."
"Don't!" said Kathleen gently. "She _is_ invisible, you know."
"So should I be if I got into the cupboard," said Jimmy.
"Oh yes," said the sneering tone of the Princess, "you think yourselvesvery clever, I dare say. But _I_ don't mind. We'll play that you _can't_see me, if you like."
"Well, but we _can't_," said Gerald. "It's no use getting in a wax. Ifyou're hiding, as Jimmy says, you'd better come out. If you've reallyturned invisible, you'd better make yourself visible again."
"Do you really mean," asked a voice quite changed, but still thePrincess's, "that you _can't_ see me?"
"Can't you _see_ we can't?" asked Jimmy rather unreasonably.
The sun was blazing in at the window; the eight-sided room was very hot,and every one was getting cross.
"You can't _see_ me?" There was the sound of a sob in the voice of theinvisible Princess.
"_No_, I tell you," said Jimmy, "and I want my tea--and----"
What he was saying was broken off short, as one might break a stick ofsealing wax. And then in the golden afternoon a really quite horridthing happened: Jimmy suddenly leaned backwards, then forwards, his eyesopened wide and his mouth too. Backward and forward he went, veryquickly and abruptly, then stood still.
"Oh, he's in a fit! Oh, Jimmy, dear Jimmy!" cried Kathleen, hurrying tohim. "What is it, dear, what is it?"
"It's _not_ a fit," gasped Jimmy angrily. "She shook me."
BACKWARD AND FORWARD HE WENT.]
"Yes," said the voice of the Princess, "and I'll shake him again if hekeeps on saying he can't see me."
"You'd better shake _me_," said Gerald angrily. "I'm nearer your ownsize."
And instantly she did. But not for long. The moment Gerald felt hands onhis shoulders he put up his own and caught those other hands by thewrists. And there he was, holding wrists that he couldn't see. It was adreadful sensation. An invisible kick made him wince, but he held tightto the wrists.
"Cathy," he cried, "come and hold her legs; she's kicking me."
"Where?" cried Kathleen, anxious to help. "I don't _see_ any legs."
"This is her hands I've got," cried Gerald. "She _is_ invisible rightenough. Get hold of this hand, and then you can feel your way down toher legs."
Kathleen did so. I wish I could make you understand how very, veryuncomfortable and frightening it is to feel, in broad daylight, handsand arms that you can't see.
"I _won't_ have you hold my legs," said the invisible Princess,struggling violently.
"What are you so cross about?" Gerald was quite calm. "You said you'd beinvisible, and you _are_."
"I'm not."
"You are really. Look in the glass."
"I'm not; I can't be."
"Look in the glass," Gerald repeated, quite unmoved.
"Let go, then," she said.
Gerald did, and the moment he had done so he found it impossible tobelieve that he really had been holding invisible hands.
"You're just pretending not to see me," said the Princess anxiously,"aren't you? Do say you are. You've had your joke with me. Don't keep itup. I don't like it."
"On our sacred word of honour," said Gerald, "you're still invisible."
There was a silence. Then, "Come," said the Princess. "I'll let you out,and you can go. I'm tired of playing with you."
They followed her voice to the door, and through it, and along thelittle passage into the hall. No one said anything. Every one felt veryuncomfortable.
"Let's get out of this," whispered Jimmy as they got to the end of thehall.
But the voice of the Princess said: "Come out this way; it's quicker. Ithink you're perfectly hateful. I'm sorry I ever played with you. Motheralways told me not to play with strange children."
A door abruptly opened, though no hand was seen to touch it. "Comethrough, can't you!" said the voice of the Princess.
It was a little ante-room, with long, narrow mirrors between its long,narrow windows.
"Goodbye," said Gerald. "Thanks for giving us such a jolly time. Let'spart friends," he added, holding out his hand.
An unseen hand was slowly put in his, which closed on it, vice-like.
"Now," he said, "you've jolly well _got_ to look in the glass and ownthat we're not liars."
He led the invisible Princess to one of the mirrors, and held her infront of it by the shoulders.
"Now," he said, "you just look for yourself."
There was a silence, and then a cry of despair rang through the room.
"Oh--oh--oh! I _am_ invisible. Whatever shall I do?"
"Take the ring off," said Kathleen, suddenly practical.
Another silence.
"I _can't_!" cried the Princess. "It won't come off. But it can't be thering; rings don't make you invisible."
"You said this one did," said Kathleen, "and it has."
"But it _can't_," said the Princess. "I was only playing at magic. Ijust hid in the secret cupboard--it was only a game. Oh, whatever_shall_ I do?"
"A game?" said Gerald slowly; "but you _can_ do magic--the invisiblejewels, and you made them come visible."
"Oh, it's only a secret spring and the panelling slides up. Oh, what amI to do?"
Kathleen moved towards the voice and gropingly got her arms round apink-silk waist that she couldn't see. Invisible arms clasped her, a hotinvisible cheek was laid against hers, and warm invisible tears lay wetbetween the two faces.
"Don't cry, dear," said Kathleen; "let me go and tell the King andQueen."
"The----?"
"Your royal father and mother."
"Oh, _don't_ mock me!" said the poor Princess. "You _know_ that was onlya game, too, like----"
"Like the bread and cheese," said Jimmy triumphantly. "I knew _that_was!"
"But your dress and being asleep in the maze, and----"
"Oh, I dressed up for fun, because every one's away at the fair, and Iput the clue just to make it all more real. I was playing at FairRosamond first, and then I heard you talking in the maze, and I thoughtwhat fun; and now I'm invisible, and I shall never come right again,never--I know I shan't! It serves me right for lying, but I didn'treally think you'd believe it--not more than half, that is," she addedhastily, trying to be truthful.
"But if you're not the Princess, who _are_ you?" asked Kathleen, stillembracing the unseen.
"I'm--my aunt lives here," said the invisible Princess. "She may be homeany time. Oh, what shall I do?"
"Perhaps she knows some charm----"
"Oh, nonsense!" said the voice sharply; "she doesn't believe in charms.She _would_ be so vexed. Oh, I daren't let her see me like this!" sheadded wildly. "And all of you here, too. She'd be so dreadfully cross."
The beautiful magic castle that the children had believed in now feltas though it were tumbling about their ears. All that was left was theinvisibleness of the Princess. But that, you will own, was a good deal.
"I just said it," moaned the voice, "and it came true. I wish I'd neverplayed at magic--I wish I'd never played at anything at all."
"Oh, don't say that," Gerald said kindly. "Let's go out into the garden,near the lake, where it's cool, and we'll hold a solemn council. You'lllike that, won't you?"
"Oh!" cried Kathleen suddenly, "the buckle; that makes magic comeundone!"
"It doesn't _really_," murmured the voice that seemed to speak withoutlips. "I only just _said_ that."
"You only 'just said' about the ring," s
aid Gerald. "Anyhow, let's try."
"Not _you_--_me_," said the voice. "You go down to the Temple of Flora,by the lake. I'll go back to the jewel-room by myself. Aunt might seeyou."
"She won't see _you_," said Jimmy.
"Don't rub it in," said Gerald. "Where _is_ the Temple of Flora?"
"That's the way," the voice said; "down those steps and along thewinding path through the shrubbery. You can't miss it. It's whitemarble, with a statue goddess inside."
The three children went down to the white marble Temple of Flora thatstood close against the side of the little hill, and sat down in itsshadowy inside. It had arches all round except against the hill behindthe statue, and it was cool and restful.
They had not been there five minutes before the feet of a runner soundedloud on the gravel. A shadow, very black and distinct, fell on the whitemarble floor.
"Your shadow's not invisible anyhow," said Jimmy.
"Oh, bother my shadow!" the voice of the Princess replied. "We left thekey inside the door, and it's shut itself with the wind, and it's aspring lock!"
There was a heartfelt pause.
Then Gerald said, in his most business-like manner:
"Sit down, Princess, and we'll have a thorough good palaver about it."
"I shouldn't wonder," said Jimmy, "if we was to wake up and find it wasdreams."
"No such luck," said the voice.
"Well," said Gerald, "first of all, what's your name, and if you're nota Princess, who are you?"
"I'm--I'm," said a voice broken with sobs, "I'mthe--housekeeper's--niece--at--the--castle--and my name's Mabel Prowse."
"That's exactly what I thought," said Jimmy, without a shadow of truth,because how could he? The others were silent. It was a moment full ofagitation and confused ideas.
"Well, anyhow," said Gerald, "you belong here."
"YOUR SHADOW'S NOT INVISIBLE, ANYHOW," SAID JIMMY.]
"Yes," said the voice, and it came from the floor, as though its ownerhad flung herself down in the madness of despair. "Oh yes, I belong hereright enough, but what's the use of belonging anywhere if you'reinvisible?"