The Circus of Adventure (23 page)

‘I don’t like him on the table,’ said Dinah, but she was much too happy to make a fuss. She told Jack of the excitement when the message came that they were all to dress in State clothes and be driven to the Palace. ‘We just couldn’t believe it!’ she said. ‘Tell us again about last night, Jack, and how you rescued the King and caught the Count.’

Gussy was tremendously excited. His eyes sparkled, and he talked nineteen to the dozen. He felt in his element now—he was a Prince, the heir to the throne, Prince Aloysius Gramondie—not a silly little cry-baby with much too long hair!

‘Here’s Aunt Allie!’ cried Lucy-Ann, suddenly. She threw down her table-napkin and flew across the luncheon-room, thinking of nothing but welcoming the person she loved so much. ‘Aunt Allie! You’ve come!’

Mrs. Cunningham was being ushered into the great room by two servants, who called out her name. Bill went to her at once, and Dinah, Philip and Jack joined Lucy-Ann in her rush across the room. This was all that was needed to make things perfect!

Bill’s eyes were shining as he took his wife to introduce her to the King. A place had been left for her on his other side, for her aeroplane had been expected for the last half hour. She was quite bewildered by everything, for she knew only half the story, of course.

Gussy waited till the others had made enough fuss of her and then went up himself. She held out her hand to him, and he bowed over it, and kissed it politely, just as his uncle had done. Somehow it seemed right in Tauri-Hessia—quite a natural thing to do, and none of the children even thought of laughing.

After the grand lunch the children went to see over the Palace. ‘My word—you’re lucky to be able to spend the rest of your hols here, Gussy,’ said Jack. ‘It’s a wonderful place. Not that I’d like to live here, of course—but to stay for a few weeks as you’ll be able to do—you’re jolly lucky!’

‘We shall miss you, Gussy,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘I suppose we’ll be leaving tomorrow, or sometime soon. I’m quite sorry this adventure is over.’

‘But it isn’t,’ said Gussy, his face beaming all over. ‘It isn’t! I have asked my uncle to let me have you here as my guests. You will stay? Or do you not like me well enough? You have so often tizzed me—like when my finger blidded.’

‘Oh, Gussy—it doesn’t mean we don’t like people when we tease them!’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘Do you really mean that your uncle wants us to stay? All of us? I don’t want to stay without Bill and Aunt Allie.’

‘All of you,’ said Gussy, beaming again. ‘Kiki and Snoozy too. But not Pedro and the others because they must go with the circus, they say. Then you will stay with me till we go back to school togezzer?’

‘We’d love to,’ said Jack. ‘I could do with a couple of weeks in a Palace. I’ll take some pictures back to show the boys. They’ll think I’m telling them fairy-tales if I don’t!’

Pedro, Ma, Toni and Bingo said goodbye to the five children that evening. They were still wearing their splendid clothes. ‘We’ve been told we can keep them,’ said Pedro, grinning. ‘I shall fancy myself when I go into the ring to help Toni and Bingo set up their wires now—the Great and Only Pedro the Magnificent.’

He bowed himself almost to the ground. Ma gave him a resounding slap. ‘Ha! You will peel potatoes for your old Ma tonight!’ she said, and laughed loudly. Kiki imitated her and made her laugh all the more.

The children were sorry when the circus-folk had gone. They had been such good friends. ‘I hope we’ll see them sometime again,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘I liked them all.’

‘You will now come to my uncle and tell him you will stay, plizz?’ begged Gussy, who seemed to think they might change their minds. ‘And I have to ask him something. You must help me with it.’

He dragged them off to his uncle’s room. They all bowed politely. ‘Well, Aloysius,’ said the King, looking amused. ‘Have you persuaded your friends to put up with you and stay for the rest of the holidays?’

‘They will stay,’ said Gussy. ‘And, sir, I have something else to beg of you—to BEG of you, sir. These boys, they will tell you it is very, very important. You will grant it to me, sir?’

‘I might, as I feel quite pleased with you at the moment,’ said his uncle, smiling. ‘But tell me what it is first.’

‘It is my hair,’ said Gussy. ‘I want it short—snip, snip—like Philip’s and Jack’s. I will not look like a girl, I WILL NOT!’

‘You’re not supposed to wear it short, Aloysius,’ said his uncle, ‘but I know how you feel. I felt the same when I was a Prince and went to school in England. Very well—you shall have it cut short!’

Gussy’s face was a study. Nothing in the world could have pleased him more. ‘I go tomorrow,’ he said. ‘I go tomorrow at seven o’clock in the morning. Ha—it will be so short that never will a ribbon sit on it again!’

‘Thank you for asking us to stay, Your Majesty,’ said Jack, speaking for all the others. ‘We shall love it, and it’s nice of Gussy to want us.’

‘Fussy-Gussy!’ cried Kiki, saying quite the wrong thing. ‘Fussy-Gussy! Your Majesty! Majesty, Majesty! Send for the doctor, blow your nose.’

‘Kiki!’ said Jack, shocked.

Kiki looked at the King. She raised her crest to its fullest height, and gave a little bow. ‘Your Majesty!’ she said. ‘God save the King!'

The End.