y influence in behalf of one of your grandsons, then will
the grey lock be missing from his head, and it will depend altogether
on himself how his life unfolds itself. One thing more. Give me back
my ring and take instead this mirror, which will always show to you and
yours whatever you hold most dear, even when you are far away from it."

"Then it will ever be granted to me to bring your face before my eyes,
oh! lovely lady!" the knight exclaimed.

The fairy laughed and answered: "No, Duke Greylock--the mirror can only
reflect the forms of mortals. I know a wife awaiting you, whom you will
rather see than any picture in the glass, even were it that of a fairy.
Receive my thanks once more! you are duke, enter now into your dukedom!"

With these words she disappeared. A gentle rustling and tinkling was
heard through the air, the waste ground covered itself with fresh green,
the dry river beds filled with clear running water, and on their banks
appeared blooming meadows, shady groves and forests. The broken walls
against the hillsides fitted themselves together, rose higher
and supported once more the terraces covered with vine stocks and
fruit-trees. Villages and cities grew into form and lay cradled in
the landscape. Beautiful gardens bloomed forth, full of gay flowers,
olive-trees, orange-trees, citron, and fig, and pomegranate-trees,
each covered with its golden fruit of many-seeded apples. In the
neighbourhood of the grotto in which the fairy had been imprisoned a
park of incomparable beauty grew into view, where brooks whispered and
fountains played, and shady pergolas appeared, formed of gold and silver
trellises, over which a thousand luxuriant creepers clambered, holding
by their little tendril hands.

The fallen columns stood up again, the mutilated marble statues
found new noses and arms, and in the background of all this growing
magnificence the young duke perceived-at first dimly, as if obscured
by mists, then more distinctly-the outline of a palace with loggia,
balconies, columned halls, and statues in bronze and marble around the
cornice of its flat roof.

George, the squire, gazed in openmouthed wonder, and his mouth remained
open until he entered the fore-court of the palace. Then he only closed
it to give his jaws a little rest before their future labours began,
for such a good smell from the kitchen greeted him that he ordered the
willing cook to satisfy immediately the demands of his appetite, as h