higher rank.

The elder, with black hair and full brown eyes, sat writing at the deal
table on which the candle stood, and raised her dark gaze to the boy as
he came in. The other, with her hood thrown back, beautiful and _riant_,
with a flood of wavy golden hair, and great blue eyes, and with
something kind, and arch, and strange in her countenance, struck him as
the most wonderful beauty he could have imagined.

They questioned the man in a language strange to the child. It was not
English, for he had a smattering of that, and the man's story seemed to
amuse them. The two young ladies exchanged a glance, and smiled
mysteriously. He was more convinced than ever that he was among the good
people. The younger stepped gaily forward and said----

"Do you know who _I_ am, my little man? Well, I'm the fairy Una, and
this is my palace; and that fairy you see there (pointing to the dark
lady, who was looking out something in a box), is my sister and family
physician, the Lady Graveairs; and these (glancing at the old man and
woman), are some of my courtiers; and I'm considering now what I shall
do with _you_, whether I shall send you to-night to Lough Guir, riding
on a rush, to make my compliments to the Earl of Desmond in his
enchanted castle; or, straight to your bed, two thousand miles under
ground, among the gnomes; or to prison in that little corner of the moon
you see through the window--with the man-in-the-moon for your gaoler,
for thrice three hundred years and a day! There, don't cry. You only see
how serious a thing it is for you, little boys, to come so near my
castle. Now, for this once, I'll let you go. But, henceforward, any boys
I, or my people, may find within half a mile round my castle, shall
belong to me for life, and never behold their home or their people