love.'

On the next evening, the prince returned to the palace for the third
ball. And the princess went too, and this time she had changed her
bear's skin into a dress woven out of the starlight, studded all over
with gems, and she looked so dazzling and so beautiful, that everyone
wondered at her, and said that no one so beautiful had ever been seen
before. And the prince danced with her, and, though he could not induce
her to speak, he succeeded in slipping a ring on her finger.

When the ball was over, he followed her carriage, and rode at such a
pace that for long he kept it in sight. Then suddenly a terrible wind
arose between him and the carriage, and he could not overtake it.

When he reached his home he said to his mother, 'I do not know what is
to become of me; I think I shall go mad, I am so much in love with that
girl, and I have no means of finding out who she is. I danced with her
and I gave her a ring, and yet I do not know her name, nor where I am to
find her.'

Then the bear laughed beneath the table and muttered to itself.

And the prince continued: 'I am tired to death. Order some soup to be
made for me, but I don't want that bear to meddle with it. Every time I
speak of my love the brute mutters and laughs, and seems to mock at me.
I hate the sight of the creature!'

When the soup was ready, the bear brought it to the prince; but before
handing it to him, she dropped into the plate the ring the prince had
given her the night before at the ball. The prince began to eat his soup
very slowly and languidly, for he was sad at heart, and all his thoughts
were busy, wondering how and where he could see the lovely stranger
again. Suddenly he noticed the ring at the bottom of the plate. In a
moment he recognised it, and was dumb with surprise.

Then he saw the bear standing beside him, looking at him with gentle,
beseeching eyes, and something in the eyes of the bear made him say:
'Take off that skin, some mystery is hidden beneath it.'

And the bear's skin dropped off, and the beautiful girl stood before
him, in the dress woven out of the starlight, and he saw that she was
the stranger with whom he had fallen so deeply in love. And now she
appeared to him a thousand times more beautiful than ever, and he led
her to his mother. And the princess told them her story, and how she had
been kept shut up by her father in his palace, and how she had wearied
of her imprisonment. And the prince's mother loved