uld be better. And it was that one which he laid uppermost
ready to his hand, when he arranged them.

"At last she came. He heard of it at once. It was already past four
o'clock, but he could not forbear, even then, to look toward the tower.
It would be like her, after all, to wave then, that very night, just so
as to catch him napping, he thought. She did not wave, however. The boy
was sure of that, for he watched the tower till dark.

"In the morning, long before eight o'clock, the boy was ready. He
debated for some time whether to stand out of doors on the piazza, or
to hide behind the screened window, where he could still watch the
tower. He decided at last that it would be better not to let her see
him when she looked toward the house; then his triumph would be all the
more complete when he dashed out to run up his answer.

"Eight o'clock came and passed. The boy waited until nine, but there
was no sign of life from the tower. The boy was angry then, at himself.
He called himself, indeed, a fool, to hide as he did. Of course she
wouldn't wave when he was nowhere in sight--when he had apparently
forgotten! And here was a whole precious day wasted!

"The next morning, long before eight, the boy stood in plain sight on
the piazza. As before he waited until nine; and as before there was no
sign of life at the tower window. The next morning he was there again,
and the next, and the next. It took just five days, indeed, to convince
the boy--as he was convinced at last--that the girl did not intend to
wave at all."

"But how unkind of her!" exclaimed David.

"She couldn't have been nice one bit!" decided Jill.

"You forget," said Mr. Jack. "She was the Princess."

"Huh!" grunted Jill and David in unison.

"The boy remembered it then," went on Mr. Jack, after a pause,--"about
the money, and that she was a Princess. And of course he knew--when he
thought of it--that he could not expect that a Princess would wave like
a girl--just a girl. Besides, very likely she did not care particularly
about seeing him. Princesses did forget, he fancied,--they had so much,
so very much to fill their lives. It was this thought that kept him
from going to see her--this, and the recollection that, after all, if
she really HAD wanted to see him, she could have waved.

"There came a day, however, when another youth, who did not dare to go
alone, persuaded him, and together they paid her a call. The boy
understood, then, many things.