"Liar!" struck in Clarence. "You wouldn't have said a word about it but for Ruby! You meant to take those pumpkins--I mean _pages_--away with you. You _know_ you did! I don't know what the Guv'nor and Mater think of it--but I consider myself it was a confounded liberty!" "Well, well," said the King, "it was a mistake no doubt. But there's been no harm done, so perhaps we'd better leave it at that--for the present, you know, for the present." But the Court Chamberlain could not allow such an opportunity to escape him. "Forgive me, sire," he said eagerly, "but your Majesties are evidently unacquainted with his Excellency's family history. The motive for his indiscretion will perhaps be better understood when I mention that his parents' title was formerly Bubenfresser, and that they were executed by command of the late King as being notorious ogres." "So _that_ was his game, was it?" cried Clarence. "Bagged our pages, meaning to gobble 'em up when he got 'em home! Am I to have an Ogre for a brother-in-law?" At this there was a general cry of horror. "Marshal," said the King, "you must have known all about this--and you gave that fellow an excellent character!" "I had no reason to believe otherwise, sire," replied the ex-Regent smoothly. "He had been brought up as a strict vegetarian, and I cannot think that, if he had not acquired a taste for meat at your Majesty's table, he would ever have developed these--er--hereditary proclivities." "He hasn't developed them!" declared Edna. "It's false! Ruprecht, deny it! Tell them you are no Ogre!" "Really, ma'am," said the Duchess to Queen Selina, "I must ask your permission to leave the table. I don't feel as if I ought to be present at a family dispute of this intimate nature." "Pray don't go, my dear Duchess!" the Queen implored her. "Not till you've heard what the Count has to say." The Count rose and folded his arms in proud defiance. "I'm not an Ogre," he said sulkily. "I knew it--I knew it!" cried Edna. "Appearances were against him, that's all!" "Not an Ogre yet," went on the Count. "But I hope to be one as soon as I get the chance." "No, no, Ruprecht!" protested Edna. "You don't mean it--you _know_ you don't!" "What!" said the Count, scowling at her. "Are you going to turn round on me like this, after encouraging me as you did?" "You will not find it easy to persuade me," said the Duchess, "that the Princess would ever have urged you to become an Ogre." "_Urged_ him, indeed!" cried Edna wildly. "I had no suspicion--I never said a single word that could possibly----"