"I confess that is so. It was wrong of me to decide as I did, but it is never too late to mend. I am going to help now with all my powers, as my husband has done. Will you join and help too? My request to you to come and meet me to-day was directly due to my zeal for the movement. (’Dear me!’ thought the Duchess. ’Was that so?’) It seemed such a pity that so noble and practically unanimous an effort should be ignored by anyone who could help it--especially by people of standing." The flattery, though unintended, was not without effect. "I knew you did not purpose to participate in it; neither did I. I have changed my mind, and given up my unsocial intention. Will you, Mrs. Moss?" "No, Duchess, I cannot!" "I am sorry you say so, but why?" "It would make me the laughing-stock of my set." June motioned to the gnome. He clung to a hanging watch-chain, and held the wand to the recalcitrant lady’s lips. She resisted its power. Her mouth was obstinate. "Surely not, Mrs. Moss. I have heard you are the social queen of an influential following. Those people, whoever they are, would surely come with you, and so render our festivity representative and complete." More flattery, insidious and unintentional--such tactics being as foreign to the Duchess as grease-paint. Oh, those fairies, the diplomatists! "It seems so unreasonable. So like--so like a scene in a pantomime or fairy-play." "Exactly, that--that is the joy of it!" June, delighted, kissed the Duchess. "It is against reason and common-sense!" "Oh no, Mrs. Moss. It is the best kind of reason, and is absolute common-sense!" "But, please tell me; it’s beyond me--what good can the meeting, in such manner, of all sorts of people--noble and shady folk--do?" "Every kind of good. It will teach the reality of human brotherhood, and tend to make the shady folk--and the noble folk--nobler." "To be utterly forgotten on the morrow!" "I think not. I hope not. Once get representatives of all classes and conditions to meet in considerate fraternal intercourse, dining together fifty at one table, and gulfs of mutual suspicion, indifference, dislike, will be crossed never, I hope, to be completely divided again. It is a great idea, hazardous at first, daring always, but now reasonable and most promising. A real step forward in human progress. A large fact of hope." Her Grace was eloquent. The fairy crown had certainly worked wonders. Mrs. Moss hesitated still, and Bim lowered the wand with despair. A thick crust of vanity and pride in material things had to be dissolved. She pursed her lips obstinately, and looked at the fire. June thereupon flew across and dumped the crown on her head. It worked.