"Tea!" said the unseen Mabel scornfully. "Do you mean to say you'd go off to your teas and leave me after getting me into this mess?"
"Well, of all the unfair Princesses I ever met!" Gerald began. But Kathleen interrupted
"Oh, don't rag her," she said. "Think how horrid it must be to be invisible!"
"I don't think," said the hidden Mabel, "that my aunt likes me very much as it is. She wouldn't let me go to the fair because I'd forgotten to put back some old trumpery shoe that Queen Elizabeth wore—I got it out from the glass case to try it on."
"Did it fit?" asked Kathleen, with interest.
"Not it—much too small," said Mabel. "I don't believe it ever fitted anyone."
"I do want my tea!" said Jimmy
"I do really think perhaps we ought to go," said Gerald. "You see, it isn't as if we could do anything for you."
"You'll have to tell your aunt," said Kathleen kindly
"No, no, no!" moaned Mabel invisibly; "take me with you. I'll leave her a note to say I've run away to sea."
"Girls don't run away to sea."
"They might," said the stone floor between the pillars, "as stowaways, if nobody wanted a cabin boy—cabin girl, I mean."
"I'm sure you oughtn't," said Kathleen firmly.
