A Visit from Royalty Summary

On the day of her birthday, Princess Charlotte invites all the children of the employees of Machine-Phase Systems Limited who are living in Atlantis/Shanghai to a special cruise. The Princess travels aboard a small airship named Atlantis. The children and their parents use two huge cruise airships named AEther and Chinook. Lord John Finkle-McGraw, followed by his three children and their respective spouses, accompanies his granddaughter Elizabeth. They embark on the AEther. John Percival and Gwendolyn Hackworth climb aboard the same ship to accompany their daughter Fiona.

While Hackworth is strolling on the enchanted island generated for the Princess' birthday, he meets with Lord Finkle-McGraw. Both men exchange civilities and discuss their respective backgrounds. The Lord is immediately impressed by the engineer's culture and by his attitude towards life, which he finds quite similar to his...