“Good Lord!” Pierce cried, aghast; then he sped after the apparition.  Only for the evidence of that undignified tumble, he would have doubted the reality of this flying Venus and considered her some creature of his imagination.  There she lay, however, a thing of flesh and blood, bruised, broken, helpless; apprehensively he pictured himself staggering back to town with her in his arms.

He halted, speechless, when the girl sat up, shook the snow out of her hair, gingerly felt one elbow, then the other, and finally burst into a peal of ringing laughter.  The face she lifted to his, now that it wore a normal expression, was wholly charming; it was, in fact, about the freshest, the cleanest, the healthiest and the frankest countenance he had ever looked into.

“Glory be!” he stammered.  “I thought you were—­completely spoiled.”

“I’m badly twisted,” the girl managed to gasp, “but I guess I’m all here.  Oh!  What a bump!”

“You scared me.  I never dreamed—­I didn’t hear a thing until—­ Well, I looked up and there you were.  The sky was full of you.  Gee!  I thought I’d lost my mind.  Are you quite sure you’re all right?”

“Oh, I’ll be black and blue again, but I’m used to that.  That’s the funniest one I’ve had, the very funniest.  Why don’t you laugh?”

“I’m—­too rattled, I suppose.  I’m not accustomed to flying girls.  Never had them rain down on me out of the heavens.”

The girl’s face grew sober.  “You’re entirely to blame,” she cried, angrily.  “I was getting it beautifully until you showed up.  You popped right out of the ground.  What are you doing in the Queen’s Park, anyhow?  You’ve no business at the royal sports.”

“I didn’t mean to trespass.”

“I think I’ll call the guards.”

“Call the court physician and make sure—­”

“Pshaw!  I’m not hurt.”  Ignoring his extended hand, she scrambled to her feet and brushed herself again.  Evidently the queenly anger was short-lived, for she was beaming again, and in a tone that was boyishly intimate she explained: 

“I’d made three dandy jumps and was going higher each time, but the sight of you upset me.  Think of being upset by a perfectly strange man.  Shows lack of social training, doesn’t it?  It’s a wonder I didn’t break a skee.”

Pierce glanced apprehensively at the bluff overhead.  “Hadn’t we better move out of the way?” he inquired.  “If the royal family comes dropping in, we’ll be ironed out like a couple of handkerchiefs.  I don’t want to feel the divine right of the king, or his left, either.”

“There isn’t any king-nor any royal family.  I’m just the Queen of Pretend.”

“You’re skee-jumping, alone?  Is that what you mean?”

The girl nodded.

“Isn’t that a dangerous way to amuse self?  I thought skees were—­ tricky.”

“Have you ever ridden them?” the girl inquired, quickly.

“Never.”