ks very much of you at home, and they never take you out
with them; and when you are cutting wood, they always put you where
the sawdust gets into your mouth. Because, you see, they have never
read history, and so they don't know that the third and youngest son
is always the nicest of the family.

MELISANDE. And the tallest and the bravest and the most handsome.

GERVASE. _And_ all the other things you mention.

MELISANDE. So you ran away?

GERVASE. So I ran away--to seek my fortune.

MELISANDE. But your uncle the wizard, or your godmother or somebody,
gave you a magic ring to take with you on your travels? (Nodding) They
always do, you know.

GERVASE (showing the ring on his finger). Yes, my fairy godmother gave
me a magic ring. Here it is.

MELISANDE (looking at it). What does it do?

GERVASE. You turn it round once and think very hard of anybody you
want, and suddenly the person you are thinking of appears before you.

MELISANDE. How wonderful! Have you tried it yet?

GERVASE. Once. . . . That's why you are here.

MELISANDE. Oh! (Softly) Have you been thinking of me?

GERVASE. All night.

MELISANDE. I dreamed of you all night.

GERVASE (happily). Did you, Melisande? How dear of you to dream of me!
(Anxiously) Was I--was I all right?

MELISANDE. Oh, yes!

GERVASE (pleased). Ah! (He spreads himself a little and removes a
speck of dust from his sleeve)

MELISANDE (thinking of it still). You were so brave.

GERVASE. Yes, I expect I'm pretty brave in other people's dreams--I'm
so cowardly in my own. Did I kill anybody?

MELISANDE. You were engaged in a terrible fight with a dragon when I
woke up.

GERVASE. Leaving me and the dragon still asleep--I mean, still
fighting? Oh, Melisande, how could you leave us until you knew who had
won?

MELISANDE. I tried so hard to get back to you.

GERVASE. I expect I was winning, you know. I wish you could have got
back for the finish. . . . Melisande, let me come into your dreams again
to-night.

MELISANDE. You never asked me last night. You just came.

GERVASE. Thank you for letting me come.

MELISANDE. And then when I woke up early this morning, the world was
so young, so beautiful, so fresh that I had to be with it. It called
to me so clearly--to come out and find its secret. So I came up here,
to this enchanted place, and all the way it whispered to me--wonderful
things.

GERVASE. What did it whisper, Melisande?

MELISANDE. The secret of happines