All these details Dorothy was, of course, unable to notice or admire until they had advanced along the road to a position quite near to the palace, and she was still looking at the pretty sights when her little party entered the grounds and approached the big front door of the king’s own apartments.  To their disappointment they found the door tightly closed.  A sign was tacked to the panel which read as follows: 

+----------------------------+
|                            |
|       Owner absent.        |
|                            |
| Please Knock at the Third  |
| Door in the Left Wing.     |
|                            |
+----------------------------+

“Now,” said Tiktok to the captive Wheeler, “you must show us the way to the Left Wing.”

“Very well,” agreed the prisoner, “it is around here at the right.”

“How can the left wing be at the right?” demanded Dorothy, who feared the Wheeler was fooling them.

“Because there used to be three wings, and two were torn down, so the one on the right is the only one left.  It is a trick of the Princess Langwidere to prevent visitors from annoying her.”

Then the captive led them around to the wing, after which the machine man, having no further use for the Wheeler, permitted him to depart and rejoin his fellows.  He immediately rolled away at a great pace and was soon lost to sight.

Tiktok now counted the doors in the wing and knocked loudly upon the third one.

It was opened by a little maid in a cap trimmed with gay ribbons, who bowed respectfully and asked: 

“What do you wish, good people?”

“Are you the Princess Langwidere?” asked Dorothy.

“No, miss; I am her servant,” replied the maid.

“May I see the Princess, please?”

“I will tell her you are here, miss, and ask her to grant you an audience,” said the maid.  “Step in, please, and take a seat in the drawing-room.”

So Dorothy walked in, followed closely by the machine.  But as the yellow hen tried to enter after them, the little maid cried “Shoo!” and flapped her apron in Billina’s face.

“Shoo, yourself!” retorted the hen, drawing back in anger and ruffling up her feathers.  “Haven’t you any better manners than that?”

“Oh, do you talk?” enquired the maid, evidently surprised.

“Can’t you hear me?” snapped Billina.  “Drop that apron, and get out of the doorway, so that I may enter with my friends!”

“The Princess won’t like it,” said the maid, hesitating.

“I don’t care whether she likes it or not,” replied Billina, and fluttering her wings with a loud noise she flew straight at the maid’s face.  The little servant at once ducked her head, and the hen reached Dorothy’s side in safety.

“Very well,” sighed the maid; “if you are all ruined because of this obstinate hen, don’t blame me for it.  It isn’t safe to annoy the Princess Langwidere.”