The queen sighed.

"How handsome the prince is!" said Pipalee.

The queen blushed.

"He wore the prettiest dress in the world; and what a mustache!" cried
Pipalee, fanning herself with her left wing.

"He was a coxcomb," said the lord treasurer, sourly. The lord treasurer
was the honestest and most disagreeable fairy at court; he was an
admirable husband, brother, son, cousin, uncle, and godfather,--it was
these virtues that had made him a lord treasurer. Unfortunately they had
not made him a sensible fairy. He was like Charles the Second in one
respect, for he never did a wise thing; but he was not like him in
another, for he very often said a foolish one.

The queen frowned.

"A young prince is not the worse for that," retorted Pipalee. "Heigho!
does your Majesty think his Highness likely to return?"

"Don't tease me," said Nymphalin, pettishly.

The lord treasurer, by way of giving the conversation an agreeable turn,
reminded her Majesty that there was a prodigious accumulation of business
to see to, especially that difficult affair about the emmet-wasp loan.
Her Majesty rose; and leaning on Pipalee's arm, walked down to the supper
tent.