The wise woman made no answer beyond a deep sigh; and the king and
queen sat silent also in their anger, glaring at the wise woman. The
silence lasted again for a minute, and then the wise woman folded
her cloak around her, and her shining garment vanished like the moon
when a great cloud comes over her. Yet another minute passed and the
silence endured, for the smouldering wrath of the king and queen
choked the channels of their speech. Then the wise woman turned her
back on them, and so stood. At this, the rage of the king broke
forth; and he cried to the queen, stammering in his fierceness,--

"How should such an old hag as that teach Rosamond good manners? She
knows nothing of them herself! Look how she stands!--actually with
her back to us."

At the word the wise woman walked from the room. The great folding
doors fell to behind her; and the same moment the king and queen
were quarrelling like apes as to which of them was to blame for her
departure. Before their altercation was over, for it lasted till the
early morning, in rushed Rosamond, clutching in her hand a poor
little white rabbit, of which she was very fond, and from which,
only because it would not come to her when she called it, she was
pulling handfuls of fur in the attempt to tear the squealing,
pink-eared, red-eyed thing to pieces.

"Rosa, RosaMOND!" cried the queen; whereupon Rosamond threw the
rabbit in her mother's face. The king started up in a fury, and ran
to seize her. She darted shrieking from the room. The king rushed
after her; but, to his amazement, she was nowhere to be seen: the
huge hall was empty.--No: just outside the door, close to the