But they were not to stand there much longer, for Rumpty-Dudget's hour had come! He tried to run away, but the terrible Golden Ivy ran after him and caught him, and bound down his arms, and tied together his legs, and clutched him around the throat, and squeezed him round the body, and fastened its coils upon him tighter and tighter, until all the mischief was squeezed out of him. But, since Rumpty-Dudget was entirely made of mischief, when all the mischief was squeezed out of him of course there was no Rumpty-Dudget left--no, not so much as one of his shoe-buckles! And when Rumpty-Dudget had ceased to exist of course all the children who had been made prisoners by his spells became free; and they came racing and shouting out of the grey tower, with little Prince Hector at their head. But when Hector saw his brother and sister, and they saw him, they all three set up a cry of joy, and ran together and hugged and kissed each other heartily; for they felt as if they had been parted for a very long time. At last Hilda said, 'Why, Hector, what has become of the black spot that used to be on your chin? It is not there any more.' 'It got rubbed off against the wall of the room with the hundred-and-one corners,' replied Hector demurely. At that they all three laughed; but Hilda at least had tears in her eyes. 'And look at his hair and eyes!' exclaimed Harold; 'they are brown now, instead of black, as they used to be. What is the reason of that?' 'It is the touch of the Golden Ivy,' said a voice behind them, which Hilda fancied she had heard somewhere before. The three children looked round, and saw a lady standing beside them, dazzlingly beautiful, with a crown on her head and a smile in her eyes. They all knew her at once, though they had never seen her before except in their dreams. It was their Fairy Aunt. 'But you look very much like the Queen our mother,' said Hilda. 'And do I look like anyone besides her?' asked the lady, with a smile. 'Yes, you are like the Queen of the Air Spirits!' exclaimed Hilda; 'though you don't look so haughty as she did at first.' 'Anyone else?' asked the lady again, speaking in a very gruff tone, and drawing her eyebrows together. 'Dear me! that is the way the King of the Gnomes talked,' said Hilda, clasping her hands. 'Surely you couldn't have been him?' 'Yes, my darlings,' said the lady, sitting down and drawing the three children to her lap, 'I am the Queen, your mother; though, by Rumpty-Dudget's spells, I was obliged to leave you, and to be seen by you only in your dreams at night. And I was what seemed to you the Queen of the Air Spirits, Hilda, and the King of the Gnomes as well; because love shows itself in many forms, and works for you above and beneath, and both while you wake and while you sleep; but it is always the same love in the end, and if you love one another you will find it out at last.'