, and danced in a ballet
there before the King and Queen; in which he looked so beautiful, that
his cousin, the lovely daughter of the King of Circassia, died for love
of him.'

'Why did he not marry the poor Princess?' asked Angelica, with a sigh.

'Because they were FIRST COUSINS, Madam, and the clergy forbid these
unions,' said the Painter. 'And, besides, the young Prince had given his
royal heart ELSEWHERE.'

'And to whom?' asked Her Royal Highness.

'I am not at liberty to mention the Princess's name,' answered the
Painter.

'But you may tell me the first letter of it,' gasped out the Princess.

'That Your Royal Highness is at liberty to guess,' said Lorenzo.

'Does it begin with a Z?' asked Angelica.

The Painter said it wasn't a Z; then she tried a Y; then an X; then a W,
and went so backwards through almost the whole alphabet.

When she came to D, and it wasn't D, she grew very excited; when she
came to C, and it wasn't C, she was still more nervous; when she came
to B, AND IT WASN'T B, 'O dearest Gruffanuff,' she said, 'lend me your
smelling-bottle!' and, hiding her head in the Countess's shoulder, she
faintly whispered, 'Ah, Signor, can it be A?'

'It was A; and though I may not, by my Royal Master's orders, tell Your
Royal Highness the Princess's name, whom he fondly, madly, devotedly,
rapturously loves, I may show you her portrait,' says this slyboots:
and leading the Princess up to a gilt frame, he drew a curtain which was
before it.

O goodness! the frame contained A LOOKING-GLASS! and Angelica saw her
own face!

VII. HOW GIGLIO AND ANGELICA HAD A QUARREL

The Court Painter of His Majesty the King of Crim Tartary returned to
that monarch's dominions, carrying away a number of sketches which he
had made in the Paflagonian capital (you know, of course, my dears, that
the name of that capital is Blombodinga); but the most charming of all
his pieces was a portrait of the Princess Angelica, which all the Crim
Tartar nobles came to see. With this work the King was so delighted,
that he decorated the Painter with his Order of the Pumpkin (sixth
class) and the artist became Sir Tomaso Lorenzo, K.P., thenceforth.

King Valoroso also sent Sir Tomaso his Order of the Cucumber, besides a
handsome order for money, for he painted the King, Queen, and principal
nobility while at Blombodinga, and became all the fashion, to the
perfect rage of all the artists in Paflagonia, where the King used to
po