"Ah, my dear creature," cried Nip, "if it had been you to whom he had
paid his addresses!"

Trip simpered, and the old fairies from their seats in the honeysuckles
observed she was "sadly conducted;" but the Trips had never been too
respectable.

Meanwhile the queen, leaning on Pipalee, said, after a short pause, "Do
you know I have formed a plan!"

"How delightful!" cried Pipalee. "Another gala!"

"Pooh, surely even you must be tired with such levities: the spirit of
the age is no longer frivolous; and I dare say as the march of gravity
proceeds, we shall get rid of galas altogether." The queen said this
with an air of inconceivable wisdom, for the "Society for the Diffusion
of General Stupefaction" had been recently established among the fairies,
and its tracts had driven all the light reading out of the market. "The
Penny Proser" had contributed greatly to the increase of knowledge and
yawning, so visibly progressive among the courtiers.

"No," continued Nymphalin; "I have thought of something better than
galas. Let us travel!"

Pipalee clasped her hands in ecstasy.

"Where shall we travel?"

"Let us go up the Rhine," said the queen, turning away her head. "We
shall be amazingly welcomed; there are fairies without number all the way