Ruby rushed excitedly up to Daphne's chamber, where she had been hurting her pretty fingers by laboriously unpicking the innumerable jewels from one of the Queen's robes and sewing them on to another. "Oh, Miss Heritage, dear," she began, "it's such _ages_ since I've seen you, and I've such lots to tell you about. Just fancy! Edna's engaged!... No, not Prince Mirliflor! She sent _him_ away the day before yesterday. I can't think why--when he was so perfectly ripping. It's Count Rubenfresser." "Oh, Ruby!" cried Daphne in dismay. "Not to _him_! How _can_ she?" "I don't know--but she is. Mums doesn't like it, of course, but she's had to give in, and they'll be married in a year. Isn't it awful? There's only _one_ advantage about it that _I_ can see--Tuetzi will be one of the family now.... Oh, and you needn't go on sewing any more. Mummy said after lunch that she'd forgotten to tell you she won't want the skirt altered after all, and that you might come down again as usual now." So Daphne made her re-appearance that evening, and was welcomed by the Court with as much effusion as if they had not seen her for weeks. The Count was there, his towering form more splendidly apparelled, as became his new _role_ of an accepted suitor, and she soon learnt that she was by no means alone in loathing the thought of the engagement. Princess Edna was in such high good humour that she not only deigned to single out Daphne by her notice, but actually offered to present her to her _fiance_--an honour from which Daphne had the courage to beg that she might be excused. "I see how it is, Miss Heritage," said Edna, with a frown, "You can't understand my rejecting a Prince and preferring some one of so far inferior a rank. I really should not have thought you would be quite so snobbish as that!" "It isn't that, Princess Edna," said Daphne desperately. "It's because--I'm sure--I can't explain why, but I am sure he's bad--_really_ bad!" "If you mean by that--that he is not a pattern of virtue like Prince Mirliflor," said Edna, "he is none the worse for it, in _my_ eyes!" "I meant more--much more than that. But I ought not to have said anything." "Oh, pray go on. In fact, I _insist_ on it." "Well, then, Princess Edna," said Daphne undauntedly, "not only I, but almost everybody at Court, think that a marriage with Count von Rubenfresser would be a horrible mistake." "So _you_ have joined the league against him, have you, Miss Heritage?" said Edna. "But, of course, you would condemn anyone who failed to conform to your prim, governessy little notions of right and wrong. I might have known as much! I am only sorry I should have gone out of my way to offer you a privilege you are so incapable of appreciating. You may now retire."