"My dear," said the king, "some day you will understand that, and many other things as well."
The christening room was a Vasty Hall, whose deep blue ceiling was as high as the sky and as strange as night. Lamps, dim as the stars, hung very high, and there was one silver central chandelier, globed like the moon, and there were frescoes like clouds. The furnishings of the Vasty Hall were most magnificent. There were pillars like trees spreading out into capitals of intricate and leafy design. Lengths of fair carpet ran here and there, as soft and shining as little streams; there were thick rugs as deep as moss, seats of native carved stone, and tapes- tries as splendid as vistas curtaining the dis- tance. And the music was like the music of All-night, all done at once.
To honour the occasion the fairy guests had all come dressed as something else- for by now, of course, the fairies are copying many human fashions. One was disguised as a Butterfly with her own wings prettily painted. One rep- resented a Rose, and she could hardly be dis- tinguished from an American Beauty. One was made up as a Light, whom nobody could rec-
