"Can't you _see_ we can't?" asked Jimmy rather unreasonably.
The sun was blazing in at the window; the eight-sided room was very hot, and every one was getting cross.
"You can't _see_ me?" There was the sound of a sob in the voice of the invisible Princess.
"_No_, I tell you," said Jimmy, "and I want my tea--and----"
What he was saying was broken off short, as one might break a stick of sealing wax. And then in the golden afternoon a really quite horrid thing happened: Jimmy suddenly leaned backwards, then forwards, his eyes opened wide and his mouth too. Backward and forward he went, very quickly and abruptly, then stood still.
"Oh, he's in a fit! Oh, Jimmy, dear Jimmy!" cried Kathleen, hurrying to him. "What is it, dear, what is it?"
"It's _not_ a fit," gasped Jimmy angrily. "She shook me."
[Illustration: BACKWARD AND FORWARD HE WENT.]
"Yes," said the voice of the Princess, "and I'll shake him again if he keeps on saying he can't see me."
"You'd better shake _me_," said Gerald angrily. "I'm nearer your own size."
And instantly she did. But not for long. The moment Gerald felt hands on his shoulders he put up his own and caught those other hands by the wrists. And there he was, holding wrists that he couldn't see. It was a dreadful sensation. An invisible kick made him wince, but he held tight to the wrists.
"Cathy," he cried, "come and hold her legs; she's kicking me."
"Where?" cried Kathleen, anxious to help. "I don't _see_ any legs."
"This is her hands I've got," cried Gerald. "She _is_ invisible right enough. Get hold of this hand, and then you can feel your way down to her legs."
Kathleen did so. I wish I could make you understand how very, very uncomfortable and frightening it is to feel, in broad daylight, hands and arms that you can't see.
"I _won't_ have you hold my legs," said the invisible Princess, struggling violently.
"What are you so cross about?" Gerald was quite calm. "You said you'd be invisible, and you _are_."
"Look in the glass," Gerald repeated, quite unmoved.
Gerald did, and the moment he had done so he found it impossible to believe that he really had been holding invisible hands.
"You're just pretending not to see me," said the Princess anxiously, "aren't you? Do say you are. You've had your joke with me. Don't keep it up. I don't like it."