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“‘IF YOU COULD LET ME HAVE THE RIGHT TIME I SHOULD BE OBLIGED TO YOU.’”

Page ssss1 The Fairy Latchkey.

“All things considered,” he remarked slowly, “and especially the green ribbons, I think I may do myself the pleasure of asking you to step in.”

He was speaking quite politely this time, and Philomène entered, her pulse all in a flutter, like some bird that has flown in by the window and cannot find its way out again. The door shut to behind her, and she saw that she was in a little square room. The ceiling was of stone, as indeed was only to be expected, since it was part of the wall, but the floor was daintily if unevenly paved with shells of different tints and sizes, while the walls were tapestried with catkins. In the middle of the room stood a monster mushroom, serving as a table, with big toadstools to match on either side for chairs. The lighting was supplied by a will-o’-the-wisp, which hovered about near the ceiling till called for, when it would settle wherever it was needed. Philomène accepted the seat offered her on one of the toadstools, while the little man went to a hollow, mossgrown tree-stump in a corner of the room, and began to look for something inside it.