' said Turritella, pointing with her finger, 'there she is, trying
to keep out of sight because she is not smart.'

At this Fiordelisa blushed, and looked so shy and so lovely, that the
King was fairly astonished. He rose, and bowing low before her, said--

'Madam, your incomparable beauty needs no adornment.'

'Sire,' answered the Princess, 'I assure you that I am not in the habit
of wearing dresses as crumpled and untidy as this one, so I should have
been better pleased if you had not seen me at all.'

'Impossible!' cried King Charming. 'Wherever such a marvellously
beautiful Princess appears I can look at nothing else.'

Here the Queen broke in, saying sharply--

[Illustration]

'I assure you, Sire, that Fiordelisa is vain enough already. Pray make
her no more flattering speeches.'

The King quite understood that she was not pleased, but that did not
matter to him, so he admired Fiordelisa to his heart's content, and
talked to her for three hours without stopping.

The Queen was in despair, and so was Turritella, when they saw how much
the King preferred Fiordelisa. They complained bitterly to the King, and
begged and teased him, until he at last consented to have the Princess
shut up somewhere out of sight while King Charming's visit lasted. So
that night, as she went to her room, she was seized by four masked
figures, and carried up into the topmost room of a high tower, where
they left her in the deepest dejection. She easily guessed that she was
to be kept out of sight for fear the King should fall in love with her;
but then, how disappointing that was, for she already liked him very
much, and would have been quite willing to be chosen for his bride! As
King Charming did not know what had happened to the Princess, he looked
forward impatiently to meeting her again, and he tried to talk about her
with the courtiers who were placed in attendance on him. But by the
Queen's orders they would say nothing good of her, but declared that she
was vain, capricious, and bad-tempered; that she tormented her
waiting-maids, and that, in spite of all the money that the King gave
her, she was so mean that she preferred to go about dressed like a poor
shepherdess, rather than spend any of it. All these things vexed the
King very much, and he was silent.

'It is true,' thought he, 'that she was very poorly dressed, but then
she was so ashamed that it proves that she was not accustomed to be so.
I cannot believe that wit