'We'll have a pageant, a river pageant, on the moat. We'll all dress up
and hang Chinese lanterns in the trees. I'll be the Sunflower lady that
the Troubadour came all across the sea, because he loved her so, for,
and one of you can be the Troubadour, and the others can be sailors or
anything you like.'
'I shall be the Troubadour,' said Conrad with decision.
'I think you ought to let Kenneth because he's the visitor,' said
George, who would have liked to be it immensely himself, or anyhow did
not see why Conrad should be a troubadour if _he_ couldn't.
Conrad said what manners required, which was:
'Oh! all right, I don't care about being the beastly Troubadour.'
'You might be the Princess's brother,' Alison suggested.
'Not me,' said Conrad scornfully, 'I'll be the captain of the ship.'
'In a turban the brother would be, with the Benares cloak, and the
Persian dagger out of the cabinet in the drawing-room,' Alison went on
unmoved.
'I'll be that,' said George.
'No, you won't, I shall, so there,' said Conrad. 'You can be the captain
of the ship.'
(But in the end both boys were captains, because that meant being on the
boat, whereas being the Princess's brother, however turbanned, only
meant standing on the bank. And there is no rule to prevent captains
wearing turbans and Persian daggers, except in the Navy where, of
course, it is not done.)
So then they all tore up to the attic where the dressing-up trunk was,
and pulled out all the dressing-up things on to the floor. And all the
time they were dressing, Alison was telling the others what they were to
say and do. The Princess wore a white satin skirt and a red flannel
blouse and a veil formed of several motor scarves of various colours.
Also a wreath of pink roses off one of Ethel's old hats, and a pair of
pink satin slippers with sparkly buckles.
Kenneth wore a blue silk dressing-jacket and a yellow sash, a lace
collar, and a towel turban. And the others divided between them an
eastern dressing-gown, once the property of their grandfather, a black
spangled scarf, very holey, a pair of red and white football stockings,
a Chinese coat, and two old muslin curtains, which, rolled up, made
turbans of enormous size and fierceness.
On the landing outside cousin Ethel's open door Alison paused and said,
'I say!'
'Oh! come on,' said Conrad, 'we haven't fixed the Chinese lanterns yet,
and it's getting dark.'
'You go on,' said Alison, 'I've just thought of something.'
The children were allowed to play in the boat so long as they didn't
loose it from its moorings. The painter was extremely long, and quite
the effect of coming home from a long voyage was produced when the three
boys pushed the boat out as far as it would go among the boughs of the
beech-tree which overhung the water, and then reappeared in the circle
of red and yellow light thrown by the Chinese lanterns.
'What ho! ashore there!' shouted the captain.
'What ho!' said a voice from the shore which, Alison explained, was
disguised.
'We be three poor mariners,' said Conrad by a happy effort of memory,
'just newly come to shore. We seek news of the Princess of Tripoli.'
'She's in her palace,' said the disguised voice, 'wait a minute, and
I'll tell her you're here. But what do you want her for? ("A poor
minstrel of France") go on, Con.'
'A poor minstrel of France,' said Conrad, '(all right! I remember,) who
has heard of the Princess's beauty has come to lay, to lay----'
'His heart,' said Alison.
[Illustration: A radiant vision stepped into the circle of light.]
'All right, I know. His heart at her something or other feet.'
'Pretty feet,' said Alison. 'I go to tell the Princess.'
Next moment from the shadows on the bank a radiant vision stepped into
the circle of light, crying--
'Oh! Rudel, is it indeed thou? Thou art come at last. O welcome to the
arms of the Princess!'
'What do I do now?' whispered Rudel (who was Kenneth) in the boat, and
at the same moment Conrad and George said, as with one voice--
'My hat! Alison, won't you catch it!'
For at the end of the Princess's speech she had thrown back her veils
and revealed a blaze of splendour. She wore several necklaces, one of
seed pearls, one of topazes, and one of Australian shells, besides a
string of amber and one of coral. And the front of the red flannel
blouse was studded with brooches, in one at least of which diamonds
gleamed. Each arm had one or two bracelets and on her clenched hands
glittered as many rings as any Princess could wish to wear.