"It isn't a joke at all," sniffed Ridgwell, "it's horrible. We have eaten one of our very best friends. Oh! if only the Order of Great Imagination hadn't been taken away from us!" "I am not so sure, Ridgie," observed Christine, with feminine intuition, "that you have lost _all_ your order of imagination; I think you have still a lot left, or you would never have discovered Lal's riddle." It was Ridgwell's turn now to sit up in bed, and he asked eagerly-- "Do you really think it was only a riddle, Chris, and Lal meant only to have a joke with us?" Christine nodded gravely. "I feel very comforted with that," said Ridgwell, "so turn off the light, Chris, and we'll go to sleep again; but oh, won't I just tell Lal next time I pass him in Trafalgar Square!" Some few moments afterwards in the darkness Christine answered-- "You hadn't better make any remarks to Lal in public; you know he cautioned us about attracting a crowd." "Crowd or no crowd, I mean to tell him what I think of him," asserted Ridgwell before he turned over and went to sleep. * * * * * The clock in the hall was just chiming twelve, and Mr. Jollyface was taking his departure. Father and Mother were wishing him good-night and thanking him for bringing the chocolate lion for Ridgwell. "It is really quite remarkable how I came to buy it," agreed Mr. Jollyface; "but I was passing through Trafalgar Square when I remembered that I hadn't bought Ridgie a present, and the sight of the corner lion, as I crossed the Square, made me remember a sweetstuff model of him I had seen in a chocolate shop in the Strand, so I went and bought it. But really the most wonderful thing about it is the almost uncanny intelligence of your children. Bless my soul! they couldn't have known I had bought it; and yet, would you believe it, they actually expected a lion, and asked me if I had brought one with me." "Yes," agreed Father, "it's very wonderful; they were trying to describe a lion before you came in. I think at times children must have second sight, and that is why I am afraid we sometimes do not understand them. Good-night, Jollyface; come and see us again soon." BOOK II WHAT THE WRITER AND THE LORD MAYOR DECLARED CHAPTER V THE WRITER APPEARS UPON THE SCENE There had been a certain amount of excitement when Father and Mother had started for their holidays abroad, but nothing in any way to be compared to the excitement of the day when the Writer made his first appearance. Ridgwell and Christine distinctly heard themselves being asked for by a visitor, one day when the sitting-room door was open, and to be inquired for personally was at least something of an event. "I want to see the children," a voice had said, and there was no mistaking the significance of the words. Without any undue delay, Ridgwell and Christine immediately presented themselves.