anything of the kind. And if you
choose to dream that your future bride is more beautiful than she
happens to be, I don't see why you should put the blame on _me_! But the
truth is you're longing for some excuse for getting out of this
marriage. Come, Mirliflor, you know you are--and you had better say so
frankly."

"It is not so, Godmother," he replied; "I'm quite prepared to obey your
wishes. After all, since I _must_ marry, I am not likely to find a more
advantageous match than this. Besides, I couldn't possibly back out of
it now--even if I desired."

"And what," asked the Fairy, "if you actually meet the Princess of your
dreams?" She was ignorant of the Queen's man[oe]uvre, and so thought he
could not well fail to come across Daphne that very evening.

"That is so likely!" he said bitterly. "A mere creation of my own
mind--an ideal that I ought to have known would never be realised! No,
Godmother, since there is no hope of that, it matters little to me whom
I marry!"

"Listen to me, Mirliflor," said the Fairy impatiently. "I--I'm not so
bent on this alliance as I was. Never mind _why_--but I'm not.
And--and--if you would rather withdraw, it's not too late. _I_ see
nothing to prevent you."

"Nothing to prevent me!" replied Mirliflor indignantly. "There is my
honour! What Prince with any sense of honour at all could propose to a
Princess and then inform her that he finds, after a personal interview,
that he has changed his intentions? You of all people, Godmother
Voldoiseau, should know that we cannot _do_ these things!"

"Those ideals again!" said the exasperated Fairy. "You'll drive me out
of all patience directly! But there--I've said all I could, and if you
_will_ be pig-headed, you must. And now I'll ask you to go away, as I'm
really not well enough to bear any more conversation."

He had not been gone more than ten minutes when there was another knock
at her door, and this time it was Princess Edna herself who entered.

"So it's _you_, is it?" snapped the Court Godmother, with none of her
customary urbanity. And then, recollecting the necessity of keeping up
appearances, threw in a belated "my dear." "Well, I hear you are taking
time before you put Mirliflor out of suspense, but I presume you've
already decided to accept him?"

"That's what I came to consult you about, Court Godmother," replied
Edna. "I don't feel that I--he is at all a person I could ever be happy
with. He is not on the same intelle