, a third sighs and appeals, a fourth,
imagining he had made some way, would attempt the bold stroke of telling
Ice-Heart that unless she could respond to his adoration he would drown
himself. She only smiled, and begged him to allow her to witness the
performance--she had never seen anyone drown. So, one by one, the troupe
of aspirants--some in disgust, some in strange fear, some in
annoyance--took their departure, preferring a more ordinary spouse than
the bewitched though beautiful Princess.

And she saw them go with calmness, though, in one or two cases she had
replied to her parents that she had no objection to marry Prince
So-and-so, or Count Such-another, if they desired it--it would be rather
agreeable to have a husband if he gave her plenty of presents and did
all she asked. "Though a sighing and moaning lover, or a man who is
always twiddling a fiddle or making verses I could not stand," she would
add contemptuously.

So King Brave-Heart thought it best to try no such experiment. And in
future no gentleman was allowed to present himself except with the
understanding that he alone who should succeed in making Princess
Ice-Heart shed a tear would be accepted as her betrothed.

This proclamation diminished at once the number of suitors. Indeed,
after one or two candidates had failed, no more appeared--so well did it
come to be known that the attempt was hopeless.

And for more than a year Princess Ice-Heart was left to herself--very
much, apparently, to her satisfaction.

But all this time the mystic sisters were not idle or forgetful. Several
of the aspirants to Ice-Heart's hand had been chosen by them and
conveyed to the neighborhood of the palace by their intermediacy from
remote lands. And among these, one of the few who had found some slight
favor in the maiden's eyes was a special protege of the Western
fairy--the young and spirited Prince Francolin.

He was not one of the sighing or sentimental order of swains; he was
full of life and adventure and brightness, and his heart was warm and
generous. He admired the beautiful girl, but he pitied her still more,
and this pity was the real motive which made him yield to the fairy's
proposal that he should try again.

"You pleased the poor child," she said, when she arrived one day at the
Prince's home to talk over her new idea. "You made her smile by your
liveliness and fun. For I was there when you little knew it. The girl
has been overdosed with sentime