"Didn't you say I was to follow the teachings of your great master with the name I never can pronounce?" he demanded. "Didn't you tell me to make my own morality and obey my own instincts, without caring what people thought or what suffering I inflicted? You know you did! And that's all I've done. My instincts told me that those pages were my natural provender. I had a perfect right to take them if I could. The only people who would condemn me would be just those average conventional persons for whom you have such a contempt. I expected better things from _you_!" "I cannot sit here another moment," declared the Duchess, rising. "It is making me positively ill!" "And me!" added Lady Muscombe. "I've been on the point of fainting several times. I must say," she told Clarence, "this is _quite_ the weirdest lunch I _ever_ sat through!" "We will _all_ leave, Duchess," said the Queen. "I assure you I entirely share your sentiments, and perhaps by this time even Edna----" "I loathe him, Mother!" she said, shuddering; "I only hope I shall never see his face again!" "You hear that, sir?" said King Sidney, with more firmness than he usually showed. "And, as the Princess Edna--er--voices the general feeling, perhaps you'll see the propriety of getting out of this at once?" "It seems to me," said the Count, "that you are all making a great fuss about nothing. If I'd eaten any of your pages I could understand it. But I haven't--I never got the chance." "Thanks to Clarence!" put in Queen Selina. "He saved the poor boys!" "It was Miss Heritage, _really_, Mummy!" corrected Ruby jealously. "_She_ wanted to know about the sack, or I shouldn't have asked." "Miss Heritage!" muttered Edna. "Ah! I might have _known_ it!" "Now just you be off to that castle of yours," said the King, addressing the discomfited but quite unrepentant Ogre. "And mind you keep inside it for the future. _You_ will see that he does that, Marshal? I don't want any scandal about this business, but if I have any _more_ trouble from you, I shall be forced--well, to take some very strong measures." "I'm just going," said the Ogre calmly. "May I have my bag?" "Confound your impudence, no!" returned the King, "I shall have the beastly thing destroyed." "Then I think you ought to give me back some of the money I paid for it," said the Ogre. "I bought it from Master Xuriel, and I know you get two-thirds the price of any article he sells. He told me so." "You--you infamous scoundrel!" cried King Sidney, turning extremely red, perhaps with anger. "Marshal, see this ruffian off the premises--and look here, just send for that rascally astrologer, will you? I'll make short work of _him_!" "Farewell, then, to your Majesties," said the Ogre, with a jaunty wave of his big hand. "And farewell to _you_, Princess Edna. If I have not been as much of a Superman as I could wish, you may still find that I have profited by your teachings."