. Then her teeth were black and uneven, and, in fact, she was as
ugly as Desiree was beautiful.

At first the Prince could not speak a word, he simply gazed at her
in amazement. Then he said, turning to his father, "We have been
deceived, that portrait was painted to mislead us. It will be the
death of me."

"What do I hear, they have deceived you," fiercely exclaimed Longue
Epine.

"It is not to be wondered at," remarked the King, "that your father
kept such a treasure shut up for fifteen years."

Then he and the Prince turned towards the town, and the false Princess
and the Lady in Waiting, without any ceremony, were mounted each
behind a soldier and taken to be shut up in a castle.

[Illustration: _Painted by Jennie Harbour_
THE WHITE FAWN]

Soon after his terrible disappointment, Prince Guerrier, unable to
bear any longer the life at court, secretly departed from the palace
with his faithful friend Becafigue, leaving a letter for his father
saying he would return to him as soon as his mind was in a happier
state, and begging him meanwhile to keep the ugly Princess prisoner,
and think of some revenge upon the deceitful king, her father.

After three or four days' journeying, the wanderers found themselves
in a thick forest. Quite wearied out, the Prince threw himself
upon the ground, while Becafigue went on further in search of fruit
wherewith to refresh his royal master.

It is a long time since we left the White Fawn, that is to say the
charming Princess.

Very desolately she wept when in a stream she saw her figure
reflected, and when night came she was in great fear, for she heard
wild beasts about her, and sometimes forgetting she was a fawn she
would try to climb a tree. But with morning dawn she felt a little
safer, and the sun appeared a marvellous sight to her from which she
could hardly turn her eyes. But now the Fairy Tulip, who had always
loved the Princess guided Giroflee's feet in her direction, and
when the White Fawn saw her faithful Maid of Honour her delight was
boundless.

It did not take Giroflee long to discover that this was her
dearly-loved mistress, and she promised the White Fawn never to
forsake her, for she found she could hear all that was said although
she could not speak. Towards night the fear of having no shelter made
the two friends so dreadfully dismayed that the Fairy Tulip suddenly
appeared before them.

[Illustration]

"I am not going to scold you," she said, "al