They were now alone in the antechamber. From time to time Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson would rise impatiently and peer out into the vast hall, now only lit by one or two flickering cressets, to see if the stork-car had arrived--but the attendants in waiting always assured her that it had not, and, after some fussing and fretting, she lay down on a divan and fell into an uneasy slumber. Her husband was snoring placidly; Ruby had cried herself to sleep long before; Edna had brought down her lecture-notes, and was conscientiously employing the time in polishing up her knowledge of English Literature. Her notes on Nietzsche's philosophy had been torn out after the rupture with the Count. Somehow the Nietzschean theories did not seem to work quite well when carried into practice. But, after deciphering a very few Literature notes, Edna found herself too drowsy to continue. Clarence remained awake longest. He had wandered restlessly out into the hall just to look at the great Staircase half lost in the gloom. Daphne had ascended it a little while since. To-morrow she would come down, fresh and radiant, to meet Mirliflor. Before long they would be married and crowned, and live happy ever after in the good old Maerchenland way. Well, he wouldn't have to look on and see them doing it, which was some consolation. He went back to the antechamber and regarded the sleeping forms of his family with disillusioned eyes. "We look like Royalties--I _don't_ think!" he said to himself. "No wonder they've booted us out. Why, a bally rabbit-warren would!" But this depressing reflection soon ceased to trouble him, unless it still continued to shadow his dreams. CHAPTER XXII SQUARING ACCOUNTS Almost simultaneously Mr. Wibberley-Stimpson and his son and daughters opened their eyes, then rubbed them, and sat up and looked about them with a bewilderment that gradually gave way to intense relief. For, although the light had faded, their surroundings were reassuringly familiar. They were in their own drawing-room at "Inglegarth." It occurred at once to most of them that they had never actually left it--an impression that was pleasantly confirmed by Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson's first remark as she awoke later. "Why, hasn't the dinner-gong gone yet?" she inquired crossly. "Cook gets more and more unpunctual!" "I don't think it can be eight o'clock yet, my dear," said her husband, "it's quite light still." "Nonsense, Sidney, it must be long past dinner-time! I've been so lost in my own thoughts that somehow I----" "Now, Mother, you know you've been asleep and only just woke up!" said Edna, from one of the chintz couches. "Have I? Perhaps I _did_ drop off just for a few seconds. In fact I must have done--for I begin to recollect having quite a curious dream. I dreamed that you and I, Sidney, were King and Queen of some absurd fairy Kingdom or other, and that--well, it was not at _all_ a pleasant dream."