tence?"

"She is no Princess, Mirliflor. Merely a poor friendless girl I have
chosen to protect."

"So much the better," he said. "She is the less likely to refuse me."

"Because you are a Prince? Just so--but I don't intend that she shall
accept you for any such reason. I shall not allow you to see her at all
unless you promise not to reveal your rank, or even your real name, to
her until I give you leave to do so."

"You have my word, Godmother," he replied. "After all, it may be that,
even without rank or title, I shall succeed in obtaining favour in her
eyes."

"You trust to your good looks--but those, too, you must consent to
sacrifice. Love that is based on mere outward appearance soon passes. I
have to be very careful now how I exercise any magic power
whatever--each time it takes more and more out of me, and even sending
you these visions taxed me most severely. Still, I will make another
effort and change you into a less comely form."

"I suppose you are proposing to turn me into a beast of some kind?" he
said. "If so, I cry off. I know it succeeded with an ancestor of
ours--but that was centuries ago, and I'm not inclined to undertake the
risk myself."

"I'm not asking you to undertake it. The form you would assume would be
human, and not in the least repulsive. In strict fairness I ought to
transform the girl as well, but as I know very well that, if I did, you
would never so much as look at her, I must leave her as she is. Only if
you don't consent to be transformed yourself, you will never see her at
all."

"But what if I let myself be transformed and find out when I see her
that she doesn't resemble my vision?"

"You need not fear that. But if, when you see her, you wish to withdraw,
I will bring you back here and restore you to your own shape again, and
thus you will be none the worse."

"Well," he said, "on those terms I agree." Upon which the Fairy began
her incantations, and, after one or two failures, succeeded in
remembering the precise formula and accomplishing the metamorphosis.

"I knew it would come back to me in time," she remarked, exhausted but
gratified. "I shall suffer for it later--but it's certainly a highly
successful piece of work--as you will see if you go and look at yourself
in that mirror."

When he looked it was a complete stranger that he saw reflected. A young
man of his own height and figure, but with features that, without being
absolutely plain, were quite ordin