"Yes, Ruprecht dear, yes," said Edna, hastily. "Of course I do. This is how he's taken to bullying me, Duchess," she added lightly. "Don't you think it's too bad of him?" "It seems a little early to begin. You shouldn't allow it." "Oh, but I _like_ him to!" said Edna, pressing the Count's great arm. "In that case, my dear," said the Duchess, "you have every prospect of a happy future!" A blast from the silver trumpets here proclaimed that luncheon was served. "Lunch, at last, eh?" said King Sidney, bustling up to the Duchess. "Permit me to offer your Grace my arm. Clarence, my boy, you take in her ladyship here. Selina, my love, if you will lead the way with the Marshal." The Count followed with Edna, and the Fairy Vogelflug arrived in time to bring up the rear with Princess Ruby. "It's a most extraordinary thing," said the King, after they had sat down to lunch in the hall with the malachite columns, "a most extraordinary thing, that, when we have company like this, there should be no more than six pages to wait on us! We generally have at least a dozen. What's become of all the rest of you?" he asked a page. "I cannot say, sire," answered the boy. "They were waiting in the courtyard to receive His Excellency the Count, but have not yet returned." King Sidney told the Court Chamberlain to send for them at once, but the messenger returned with the information that the missing pages were nowhere to be seen. "Must have run off before I arrived," said the Count, laughing boisterously. "Played truant, the young rascals!" The Fairy, however, recollected Daphne's story of the sack, and was seized with suspicion. Was it possible that the royal pages--? If so, she felt something ought to be done--though not by her. She was too cautious an old person to take unnecessary risks, and decided to employ a deputy. "Ruby, my child," she whispered to the little Princess, who was sitting next to her, "I believe the Count has brought a present for you. It's in a sack in his coach. Ask him what it is." "I don't want to know," objected Ruby, "I wouldn't take any present from _him_--except Tuetzi, perhaps." "I may be wrong," said the Court Godmother, "perhaps it isn't for you after all. But I'm sure it would make him very uncomfortable if you asked him, before everybody, what he happens to have in that sack of his." "If I was sure of that," said Ruby, "I'd ask him like a shot!" "You may depend on it. And more than that, Lady Daphne is particularly anxious to know." "Oh, if _Miss Heritage_ wants me to, all right!" said Ruby. "I say, Count Rubenfresser," she called across the table, "I want to ask you something." "If it's a riddle, little Princess," replied the Count, with his mouth full, "I give it up beforehand." "It isn't a riddle. It's this: What have you got inside that sack?" "Sack?" said the Count blankly. "I don't understand. I have no sack here." "I don't mean here. I mean the sack that's inside your coach."