`Thank you very much!' the Professor heartily rejoined. `I don't know that we shall exactly require--but it's convenient to know.' And he led the children upon the platform, to explain the arrangements to them. `Here are three seats, you see, for the Emperor and the Empress and Prince Uggug. But there must be two more chairs here!' he said, looking down at the Gardener. `One for Lady Sylvie, and one for the smaller animal!'

`And may I help in the Lecture?' said Bruno. `I can do some conjuring tricks.'

`Well, it's not exactly a conjuring lecture,' the Professor said, as he arranged some curious-looking machines on the table. `However, what can you do? Did you ever go through a table, for instance?'

`Often!' said Bruno. `Haven't I, Sylvie?'

The Professor was evidently surprised, though he tried not to show it. `This must be looked into,' he muttered to himself, taking out a note-book. `And first--what kind of table?'

`Tell him!' Bruno whispered to Sylvie, putting his arms round her neck.

`Tell him yourself,' said Sylvie.

`Ca'n't,' said Bruno. `It's a bony word.'

`Nonsense!' laughed Sylvie. `You can say it well enough, if you only try. Come!'

`Muddle--' said Bruno. `That's a bit of it.'

`What does he say?' cried the bewildered Professor.

`He means the multiplication-table,' Sylvie explained.

The Professor looked annoyed, and shut up his note-book again. `Oh, that's quite another thing,' he said.

`It are ever so many other things,' said Bruno. `Aren't it, Sylvie?'

A loud blast of trumpets interrupted this conversation. `Why, the entertainment has begun!' the Professor exclaimed, as he hurried the children into the Reception-Saloon. `I had no idea it was so late!'

A small table, containing cake and wine, stood in a corner of the Saloon; and here we found the Emperor and Empress waiting for us. The rest of the Saloon had been cleared of furniture, to make room for the guests. I was much struck by the great change a few months had made in the faces of the Imperial Pair. A vacant stare was now the Emperor's usual expression; while over the face of the Empress there flitted, ever and anon, a meaningless smile.

`So you're come at last!' the Emperor sulkily remarked, as the Professor and the children took their places. It was evident that he was very much out of temper: and we were not long in learning the cause of this. He did not consider the preparations, made for the Imperial party, to be such as suited their rank. `A common mahogany table!' he growled, pointing to it contemptuously with his thumb. `Why wasn't it made of gold, I should like to know?'

`It would have taken a very long--' the Professor began, but the Emperor cut the sentence short.

`Then the cake! Ordinary plum! Why wasn't it made of--of--' He broke off again. `Then the wine! Merely old Madeira! Why wasn't it--? Then this chair! That's worst of all. Why wasn't it a throne? One might excuse the other omissions, but I ca'n't get over the chair!'