The reason she felt no more fear was that it was now night-time , and in the dark , you remember , Maimie was always rather strange . They were now loath to let her go , for , `` If the fairies see you , '' they warned her , `` they will mischief you , stab you to death or compel you to nurse their children or turn you into something tedious , like an evergreen oak . '' As they said this they looked with affected pity at an evergreen oak , for in winter they are very envious of the evergreens . `` Oh , la ! '' replied the oak bitingly , `` how deliciously cosy it is to stand here buttoned to the neck and watch you poor naked creatures shivering ! '' This made them sulky though they had really brought it on themselves , and they drew for Maimie a very gloomy picture of the perils that faced her if she insisted on going to the ball . She learned from a purple filbert that the court was not in its usual good temper at present , the cause being the tantalising heart of the Duke of Christmas Daisies . He was an Oriental fairy , very poorly of a dreadful complaint , namely , inability to love , and though he had tried many ladies in many lands he could not fall in love with one of them . Queen Mab , who rules in the Gardens , had been confident that her girls would bewitch him , but alas , his heart , the doctor said , remained cold . This rather irritating doctor , who was his private physician , felt the Duke 's heart immediately after any lady was presented , and then always shook his bald head and murmured , `` Cold , quite cold ! '' Naturally Queen Mab felt disgraced , and first she tried the effect of ordering the court into tears for nine minutes , and then she blamed the Cupids and decreed that they should wear fools ' caps until they thawed the Duke 's frozen heart . `` How I should love to see the Cupids in their dear little fools ' caps ! '' Maimie cried , and away she ran to look for them very recklessly , for the Cupids hate to be laughed at . It is always easy to discover where a fairies ' ball is being held , as ribbons are stretched between it and all the populous parts of the Gardens , on which those invited may walk to the dance without wetting their pumps . This night the ribbons were red and looked very pretty on the snow . Maimie walked alongside one of them for some distance without meeting anybody , but at last she saw a fairy cavalcade approaching . To her surprise they seemed to be returning from the ball , and she had just time to hide from them by bending her knees and holding out her arms and pretending to be a garden chair . There were six horsemen in front and six behind , in the middle walked a prim lady wearing a long train held up by two pages , and on the train , as if it were a couch , reclined a lovely girl , for in this way do aristocratic fairies travel about . She was dressed in golden rain , but the most enviable part of her was her neck , which was blue in colour and of a velvet texture , and of course showed off her diamond necklace as no white throat could have glorified it . The high-born fairies obtain this admired effect by pricking their skin , which lets the blue blood come through and dye them , and you can not imagine anything so dazzling unless you have seen the ladies ' busts in the jewellers ' windows .
XXXXX also noticed that the whole cavalcade seemed to be in a passion , tilting their noses higher than it can be safe for even fairies to tilt them , and she concluded that this must be another case in which the doctor had said `` Cold , quite cold ! ''
Duke Maimie Oriental cavalcade colour evergreens fall first jewellers minutes