r she had
taken her nap.

Now when the little dwarf heard that he was to dance a second time
before the Infanta, he was so proud that he ran about the garden,
kissing the white rose in his great delight. She had given him her
beautiful rose; she must love him, he thought. Perhaps she would put
him at her right hand in the throne room and let him be her playmate,
for, although the dwarf had never been in a palace before, he knew a
great many wonderful things.

He could make little cages out of rushes for the grasshoppers to sing
in, and he knew where the wood pigeon built her nest. All the wild
dances he knew: the swift dance in a red mantle with the autumn, the
light dance in blue sandals over the corn, the dance with white snow
wreaths in the winter, and the blossom dance through the orchards in
the spring. The Infanta would love his forest friends, too, the
rabbits that scurried about in the fern, the hedgehogs that could curl
themselves up into prickly balls, and the great wise tortoises that
crawled slowly about, nibbling the leaves and shaking their heads.
Yes, she must certainly come to the forest to play with him!

He would give her his own little bed, and would watch outside the
window until dawn to see that the wolves did not creep too near the
hut. Then, in the morning, he would tap at the shutters and wake her,
and they would go out and play together all day long.

But where was the Infanta?

The whole palace seemed asleep. The dwarf wandered around looking for
some place through which he might gain an entrance, and at last he
caught sight of a small door that was lying open. He slipped through,
and found himself in a splendid hall. He followed it to the end,
slipping through velvet curtains from one gilded room to another, each
one more magnificent than the last. Here was another room, the
brightest and most beautiful of all. The walls were patterned with
birds and dotted with silver blossoms. The furniture was of heavy
silver festooned with wreaths. It seemed as if the Infanta must run
across the pale green floor to meet him. At last he discovered that he
was no longer alone in the palace. Standing under the shadow of the
doorway, at the extreme end of the room, he saw a little figure
watching him. His heart trembled, a cry of joy broke from his lips,
and he moved out into the sunlight. As he did so, the figure moved
out also, and the little dwarf saw it plainly.

The Infanta? No, it was a monster;