, as the saying is, played only second
fiddle.

"Yes," says Angelica, going on in her foolish ungrateful way. "I
know who'll give me much finer things than your beggarly little pearl
nonsense."

"Very good, miss! You may take back your ring too!" says Giglio, his
eyes flashing fire at her, and then, as his eyes had been suddenly
opened, he cried out, "Ha! what does this mean? Is THIS the woman I have
been in love with all my life? Have I been such a ninny as to throw away
my regard upon you? Why--actually--yes--you are a little crooked!"

"Oh, you wretch!" cries Angelica.

"And, upon my conscience, you--you squint a little."

"Eh!" cries Angelica.

"And your hair is red--and you are marked with the smallpox--and what?
you have three false teeth--and one leg shorter than the other!"

"You brute, you brute, you!" Angelica screamed out: and as she seized
the ring with one hand, she dealt Giglio one, two, three smacks on the
face, and would have pulled the hair off his head had he not started
laughing, and crying,

"Oh dear me, Angelica, don't pull out MY hair, it hurts! You might
remove a great deal of YOUR OWN, as I perceive, without scissors or
pulling at all. Oh, ho, ho! ha, ha, ha! he he he!"

And he nearly choked himself with laughing, and she with rage; when,
with a low bow, and dressed in his Court habit, Count Gambabella,
the first lord-in-waiting, entered and said, "Royal Highnesses! Their
Majesties expect you in the Pink Throne-room, where they await the
arrival of the Prince of CRIM TARTARY."

VIII. HOW GRUFFANUFF PICKED THE FAIRY RING UP, AND PRINCE BULBO CAME TO
COURT.

Prince Bulbo's arrival had set all the court in a flutter: everybody was
ordered to put his or her best clothes on: the footmen had their gala
liveries; the Lord Chancellor his new wig; the Guards their last
new tunics; and Countess Gruffanuff, you may be sure, was glad of an
opportunity of decorating HER old person with her finest things. She was
walking through the court of the Palace on her way to wait upon their
Majesties, when she espied something glittering on the pavement, and
bade the boy in buttons who was holding up her train, to go and pick up
the article shining yonder. He was an ugly little wretch, in some of the
late groom-porter's old clothes cut down, and much too tight for him;
and yet, when he had taken up the ring (as it turned out to be), and was
carrying it to his mistress, she thought he looked like a lit