And I know, wherever it is, it'll take jolly good care that it's safe.' 'She's right there,' said everyone, for they had observed that the Psammead had a way of knowing which side its bread was buttered.
She turned to the woman and said, 'You'll take me home with you, won't you?
And let me play with your little girls till the others have done with the Queen.' 'Surely I will, little heart!' said the woman.
And then Anthea hurriedly stroked the Psammead and embraced Jane, who took the woman's hand, and trotted contentedly away with the Psammead's bag under the other arm.
The others stood looking after her till she, the woman, and the basket were lost in the many-coloured crowd.

Then Anthea turned once more to the palace's magnificent doorway and said-- 'Let's ask the porter to take care of our Babylonian overcoats.' So they took off the garments that the woman had lent them and stood amid the jostling petitioners of the Queen in their own English frocks and coats and hats and boots.
'We want to see the Queen,' said Cyril; 'we come from the far Empire where the sun never sets!' A murmur of surprise and a thrill of excitement ran through the crowd.
The door-porter spoke to a black man, he spoke to someone else.

There was a whispering, waiting pause.

Then a big man, with a cleanly-shaven face, beckoned them from the top of a flight of red marble steps.
They went up; the boots of Robert clattering more than usual because he was so nervous.

A door swung open, a curtain was drawn back.