"Oh, Mummy, you won't send her away? When you know I've never been good with anybody before, and never _shall_ be, either!" Queen Selina was quite alive to the advantages of retaining Daphne's services. "Well, Ruby," she said, "I shall allow Miss Heritage to stay on, as your companion" (she had already seen her way to proposing a reduction of salary), "and she can make herself generally useful to me as well." Ruby went dancing back to Daphne. "You're not to be my governess any more, Miss Heritage, dear," she announced, "because I shan't require one now. But I've got Mummy to let you stay on as companion. Aren't you glad?" Daphne answered that she was--and she would certainly have been sorry to leave Maerchenland quite so soon. "And now tell me, Mr. Chamberlain--Baron Troitz, I mean," the Queen was saying. "What time do you dine here?" "Whenever your Majesties please," was the reply. "All the same to us," said the King affably. "No wish to put you _out_ at all." "Then with your permission, Sire, the Banquet will be served an hour hence in the Banqueting Hall." "A banquet!" cried the Queen. "I would rather we dined quietly, without any fuss, on our first night here." "It is the night of your Majesties' Coronation," the Court Chamberlain reminded her. "The Court would be deeply disappointed if so auspicious an event were not celebrated in a befitting manner." "Oh," said the Queen. "Then it will be full dress, I suppose--with crowns?" "I hope--not _crowns_," put in King Sidney, who had taken the earliest opportunity of leaving his own in a corner. "A crown is such an uncomfortable thing to eat in. At least mine is." The Court Chamberlain gave it as his decision that crowns should certainly be worn--at least through the earlier courses of the meal. "All you've got to do, Guv'nor," said Clarence, "is to keep yours from splashing into the soup. A bit of elastic round your chin would do that all right." "And I presume," said the Queen, "we shall wear these robes we have on?... Oh, we shall find a change of costume upstairs? Then, as there is not too much time for dressing, I should like to see my room at once, Mrs. Fogleplug." "Sidney," she panted a little later as, escorted by the Marshal and Baron, and followed by the Court Godmother and the ladies and lords-in-waiting, they were making the ascent of the grand staircase, "one of the _first_ things we must do here is to put in a lift. I really can't be expected to climb all these stairs several times a day!" "They do take it out of one, my dear," he admitted. "And a lift would certainly be a great improvement." At the head of the staircase was a long tapestry-hung gallery in which were the doors opening into the suites of rooms prepared for Royalty.