CHAPTER I.IN WHICH THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO QUEEN NYMPHALIN.
IN one of those green woods which belong so peculiarly to our island (for the Continent has its forests, but England its woods) there lived, a short time ago, a charming little fairy called Nymphalin.

I believe she is descended from a younger branch of the house of Mab; but perhaps that may only be a genealogical fable, for your fairies are very susceptible to the pride of ancestry, and it is impossible to deny that they fall somewhat reluctantly into the liberal opinions so much in vogue at the present day.
However that may be, it is quite certain that all the courtiers in Nymphalin's domain (for she was a queen fairy) made a point of asserting her right to this illustrious descent; and accordingly she quartered the Mab arms with her own,--three acorns vert, with a grasshopper rampant.
It was as merry a little court as could possibly be conceived, and on a fine midsummer night it would have been worth while attending the queen's balls; that is to say, if you could have got a ticket, a favour not obtained without great interest.
But, unhappily, until both men and fairies adopt Mr.Owen's proposition, and live in parallelograms, they will always be the victims of _ennui_.
And Nymphalin, who had been disappointed in love, and was still unmarried, had for the last five or six months been exceedingly tired even of giving balls.

She yawned very frequently, and consequently yawning became a fashion.
"But why don't we have some new dances, my Pipalee ?" said Nymphalin to her favourite maid of honour; "these waltzes are very old-fashioned." "Very old-fashioned," said Pipalee.
The queen gaped, and Pipalee did the same.
It was a gala night; the court was held in a lone and beautiful hollow, with the wild brake closing round it on every side, so that no human step could easily gain the spot.

Wherever the shadows fell upon the brake a glow-worm made a point of exhibiting itself, and the bright August moon sailed slowly above, pleased to look down upon so charming a scene of merriment; for they wrong the moon who assert that she has an objection to mirth,--with the mirth of fairies she has all possible sympathy.

Here and there in the thicket the scarce honeysuckles--in August honeysuckles are somewhat out of season--hung their rich festoons, and at that moment they were crowded with the elderly fairies, who had given up dancing and taken to scandal.