Mary laughed and waved to the cabbie to wait for them. "Well, then, our chariot awaits, my friends," she announced, clapping her hands together in delight. She might have been more wary but the game was catching. Already the duller sides of everything could fade away, leaving the lovely Helene and dashing Piper and Mary herself as more than they might seem to anyone outside their group.
"Helene," Mary said as she took the girl's free arm lightly and easily, as if they had already been friends for years, "yours is the truest wisdom I have heard this day. But of course the park is a palace. It always has been, but maybe you haven't seen it rightly. It's a magic that is hard to see without the help of friends. Piper, Prince of Air and Hearts, you agree don't you?" Mary asked in utter sincerity, hoping that Piper would continue on with the play, and let whatever adventure come along with it.