"I don't think she would," said the princess with a faint sigh; and she looked at Erebus with envious eyes. "But when she starts making a fuss and gets so red and excited, she--she--rather frightens me."

"It would take a lot more than that to frighten me," said Erebus with a very cold ferocity.

"I rather like people like that. I think they look so funny when they're really red and excited," said the Terror gently. "But what you've got to do is to stand up to her."

"Stand up to her?" said the princess, puzzled by the idiom.

"Tell her that you don't care what she says," said the Terror.

"Cheek her," said Erebus.

"I couldn't. It would be too difficult," said the princess, shaking her head.

"Of course it isn't easy at first; but you'll be surprised to find how soon you'll get used to shutting her up," said the Terror. "But I don't believe in cheeking her unless she gets very noisy. I believe in being quite polite but not giving way."

"She is very noisy," said the princess.

"Oh, then you'll have to shout at her. It's the only way. But mind you only have rows when you're in the right about something," said the Terror. "Then she'll soon learn to leave you alone. It's no good having a row when you're in the wrong."

"I think it's best always to have a row," said Erebus with an air of wide experience.

"Well, it isn't--at least it wouldn't be for the princess--she's not like you," said the Terror quickly.

"Oh, no: not always--only when one is in the right. I see that," said the princess. "But what should I have a row about?"

The Twins puckered their brows as they cudgeled their brains for a pretext for an honest row.

Presently the Terror said: "Why don't you make them let you have some one to play with? It's silly being as dull as you are. What's the good of being a princess, if you haven't any friends?"

"Oh, yes!" cried the princess; and her cheeks flushed, and her eyes sparkled. "It would be nice! You and Erebus could come to tea with me and sooper and loonch often and again!"

The Twins looked at each other with eyes full of a sudden dismay. It was not in their scheme of things as they should be that they should go to the Grange in the immaculate morning dress of an English boy and girl, and spend stiff hours in the presence of a crimson baroness.

"That wouldn't do at all," said the Terror quickly. "You had better not tell them anything at all about us. They wouldn't let us come to the Grange; and they'd stop you coming here. It's ever so much nicer meeting secretly like this."

"But it would be very nice to meet at the Grange as well as here," said the princess, who felt strongly that she could not have enough of this good thing.

"It couldn't be done. They wouldn't have us at the Grange," said Erebus, supporting the Terror.

"But why not?" said the princess in surprise.

"The people about here don't understand us," said the Terror somewhat sadly. "They'd think we should be bad for you."

"But it is not so! You are ever so good to me!" cried the princess hotly.

"It's no good. You couldn't make grown-ups see that--you know what they are. No; you'd much better leave it alone, and sit tight and meet us here," said the Terror.

The princess sat thoughtful and frowning for a little while; then she sighed and said: "Well, I will do what you say. You know more about it."

"That's all right," said the Terror, greatly relieved.

There was a short silence; then he said thoughtfully: "I tell you what: it would be a good thing if you were to get some muscle on you.

Suppose we taught you some exercises. You could practise them at home; and soon you'd be able to do things when you were with us."

"What things?" said the princess.

"Oh, you'd be able to run--and jump. Why we might even be able to teach you to climb," said the Terror with a touch of enthusiasm in his tone as the loftier heights of philanthropy loomed upon his inner vision.

"Oh, that would be nice!" cried the princess. Forthwith the Twins set about teaching her some of the exercises which go to the making of muscle; and the princess was a painstaking pupil. In spite of the seeds of revolt they had sown in her heart, she was eager to get back to the peach-garden before the baroness should awake, or at any rate before she should have satisfied herself that her charge was not in the house or about the gardens. The Terror therefore conducted her down the screen of trees to the door in the wall. She had left it unlatched; and he pushed it open gently. There was no sound of snoring: the baroness had awoke and left the garden.

"I expect she is still looking for me in the house," said the princess calmly. "They'd be shouting if she weren't."

"Yes. I say; do you want _all_ these peaches?" said the Terror, looking round the loaded walls.

"Me? No. I have a peach for breakfast and another for lunch. But I don't care for peaches much. It's the way the baroness eats them, I think--the juice roonning down, you know. And she eats six or seven always."

"That woman's a pig. I thought she looked like one," said the Terror with conviction. "But if you don't want them all, may I have some for my mother? The doctor has ordered her fruit; and she's very fond of peaches."

"Oh, yes; take some for your mother and yourself and Erebus. Take them all," said the princess with quick generosity.

"Thank you; but a dozen will be heaps," said the Terror.

The princess helped him gather them and lay them in a large cabbage-leaf; and then they bade each other good-by at the garden-gate.

The Twins returned home in triumph with the golden spoil. But when she was provided with two peaches for seven meals in succession, Mrs.

Dangerfield could no longer eat them with a mind at ease, and she asked the Twins how they came by them. They a.s.sured her that they had been given to them by a friend but that the name of the donor must remain a secret. She knew that they would not lie to her; and thinking it likely that they came from either the squire or the vicar, both of whom took an uncommonly lively interest in her, judging from the fact that either of them had asked her to marry him more than once, she went on eating the peaches with a clear conscience.

The next afternoon the Twins devoted themselves to strengthening the princess' spirit with no less ardor than they devoted themselves to strengthening her body. They adjured her again and again to thrust off the yoke of the baroness. The last pregnant words of Erebus to her were: "You just call her an old red pig, and see."

Their efforts in the cause of freedom bore fruit no later than that very evening. The princess was dining with the Baroness Von Aschersleben and Miss Lambart; and the baroness, who was exceedingly jealous of Miss Lambart, had interrupted her several times in her talk with the princess; and she had done it rudely. The princess, who wanted to hear Miss Lambart talk, was annoyed. They had reached dessert; and Miss Lambart was congratulating her on the improvement in her appet.i.te since she had just made an excellent meal, and said that it must be the air of Muttle Deeping. The baroness uttered a loud and contemptuous snort, and filled her plate with peaches. The princess looked at her with an expression of great dislike. The baroness gobbled up one peach with a rapidity almost inconceivable in a human being, and very noisily, and was midway through the second when the princess spoke.

"I want some children to play with," she said.

Briskly and with the sound of a loud unpleasant sob the baroness gulped down the other half of the peach, and briskly she said: "Zere are no children in zis country, your Royal Highness."

It was the custom for the princess to speak and hear only English in England.

"But I see plenty of children when I drive," said the princess.

"Zey are nod children; zey are nod 'igh an' well-born," said the baroness in rasping tones.

"Then you must find some high and well-born children for me to play with," said the princess.

"Moost? Moost?" cried the baroness in a high voice. "Bud eed ees whad I know ees goot for you."

"They're good for me," said the princess firmly. "And you must find them."

The baroness was taken aback by this so sudden and unexpected display of firmness in her little charge; her face darkened to a yet richer crimson; and she cried in a loud bl.u.s.tering voice: "Bud eed ees eembossible whad your royal highness ask! Zere are no 'igh an'

well-born children 'ere. Zey are een Loondon."