tell!" the Princess promised.

Then the youth kissed her tenderly, dipped himself in the milk, went
back into his feather shirt, and flew off as a pigeon.

The next day he came again and the next and the next and the Princess
fell so madly in love with him that all day long and all night long,
too, she thought of nothing else. She no longer touched her embroidery
but day after day sat idle in the tower-room just awaiting the hour of
his arrival. And every day it seemed to the King and the Queen and all
the people about the Court that the Princess was becoming more and more
beautiful. Her cheeks kept growing pinker, her eyes brighter, her lovely
hair more golden.

"I must say sitting at that foolish embroidery agrees with her," the
King said.

"No, it isn't that," the Queen told him. "It's the big bowl of milk she
drinks every afternoon. You know milk is very good for the complexion."

"Milk indeed!" murmured the Princess to herself, and she blushed rosier
than ever at thought of her wonderful secret.

But a princess can't keep growing more and more beautiful without
everybody in the world hearing about it. The neighboring kings soon
began to feel angry and suspicious.

"What ails this Princess?" they asked among themselves. "Isn't one of
our sons good enough for her? Is she waiting for the King of Persia to
come as a suitor or what? Let us stand together on our rights and demand
to know why she won't consider one of our sons!"

So they sent envoys to the Princess's father and he saw at once that the
matter had become serious.

"My dear," he said to the Princess, "your mother and I have humored you
long enough. It is high time that you had a husband and I insist that
you allow the sons of neighboring kings to be presented to you next
week."

"I won't do it!" the Princess declared. "I'm not interested in the sons
of the neighboring kings and that's all there is about it!"

Her father looked at her severely.

"Is that the way for a princess to talk? Persist in this foolishness and
you may embroil your country in war!"

"I don't care!" the Princess cried, bursting into tears. "I can't marry
any of them, so why let them be presented?"

"Why can't you marry any of them?"

"I just can't!" the Princess insisted.

At first, in spite of the pleadings of both parents, she would tell them
no more, but her mother kept questioning her until at last in
self-defense the Princess confessed that she had a true love wh