I didn't acquiesce very whole-heartedly. I'm afraid my thoughts were with my lost guineas. It _had_ rather mattered afterwards. I really had been very foolish. "You look depressed," said the Fairy Queen. "Can I help you? I'm really extremely practical. You know, don't you," she leaned forward and looked at me earnestly, "that I should be delighted if I could assist you with any advice?" I hesitated. Just before she came I had been anxiously considering as to how I was going to make one hundred pounds do the work of two during the next few weeks; but somehow I didn't quite like to mention such material matters to the Queen; it didn't seem suitable. I looked up and met her kind eyes fixed on mine with an expression of the gentlest interest and solicitude. "I wonder," I said, still hesitating, "whether you know anything about stocks and shares?" "Stocks and shares," she repeated slowly, looking just a little vague and puzzled. And then--"Oh, yes, of course I do, if that's all you want to know." I felt quite pleased now that I had really got it out. "If you could just give me a useful hint or two I should be tremendously grateful," I said. Already thousands loomed entrancingly before me. Already I saw myself settled in that darling cottage on the windy hill above Daccombe Wood. Already-- "I think I had better get a pencil and paper," I said. "My memory's dreadful." But the Fairy Queen shook her head. "I'll write it down for you," she said, "and you can read it when I'm gone. That's so much more fun. But I don't need paper." She drew a tiny shining implement from her pocket and, picking up a couple of rose-petals which had fallen upon the table, she busied herself with them for a moment at my desk, her mouth pursed up, her brows contracted in an expression of intense seriousness. "There," she said, "that's that. And now show me _all_ your new clothes." We spent quite a pleasant evening over one thing and another, and I forgot all about the rose-leaves until after she had gone; but when I came back to my empty sitting-room they shone in the dusk with a soft radiance which came, I discovered, from the writing on them. It glowed like those luminous figures on watches which were so entrancing when they first appeared. I had never realised before that they were fairy figures. I spread the petals out on my palm, feeling quite excited at the prospect of making my fortune by such means, though I was a little anxious as to how I was going to make use of the information I was about to acquire. "I will ask Cousin Fred," I decided (Cousin Fred being a stockbroker), and I smiled a little to myself as I thought how amazed and possibly amused my dapper cousin would be when he learnt the source of my knowledge. He might even refuse to believe in it--and then where should I be? I needn't have troubled. When I unfolded my rose-petals this is what I read:-- "_Stocks._--The white ones are much the best and have by far the sweetest scent.