t it on I become
invisible! Now I can slip into Peerless Beauty's chamber and see her
lovely face!"

With his magic cap pulled tightly down over his forehead, he set off
once more for Peerless Beauty's castle. Sure enough he was able to pass
unseen the guards at the gate, he was able to go boldly into the great
hall, and beyond it through the curtain into Peerless Beauty's own
chamber.

The Beauty was seated with her back to the curtain and a serving maid
was combing out her hair for the night. It was lovely hair and it fell
down over Beauty's shoulders like a mantle of gold. At mere sight of it
Danilo was so overcome with emotion that he sighed.

"What's that?" Beauty cried. "There's some one in my chamber!"

The serving maid looked under the bed and behind the chairs and in the
corners.

"There's no one here, my lady."

"That's strange!" Beauty said. "I feel as though some one were looking
at me."

When Danilo saw the actual face of the enchanted maiden, it was all he
could do to keep from crying aloud. She was so unutterably beautiful
that he almost swooned away in ecstacy.

Presently the maiden went to bed and fell into an uneasy sleep. The
light of a single candle shed a faint radiance over her face making it
lovelier than ever. Through all the long hours of night Danilo stood
perfectly still, gazing at her, afraid almost to breathe lest he should
disturb her.

"Unless I win her for wife," he thought to himself, "I shall nevermore
be happy!"

When morning came the maiden awoke with a start and said:

"There's some one looking at me! Who is it? Who is it?"

"It's only your poor Danilo," a voice answered.

"Danilo? Who is Danilo?"

"The youth whom you have been treating so cruelly. But though you have
treated me cruelly, I love you still!"

"If you love me still," the maiden said, "let me see you."

Danilo took off the magic cap and there he stood, a handsome youth, at
the foot of her bed. Then the crafty maiden spoke him fair and Danilo
told her about the magic cap, and when she said to him that she repented
having treated him so cruelly and asked him to let her see the cap, the
poor young man was so dazzled by her beauty and her seeming kindness
that he handed it to her at once.

Instantly she clapped it on her head and disappeared. Then she laughed
in derision and called out loudly to the guards:

"Ho, there! Take out this young man and drive him forth! Let him return
when he has another t