o make her like me a
little?'

'The disguise you suggest is quite beyond our means at present.'

'Then I'll disguise myself as a lift attendant,' said Florizel.

And what is more, he did it. His father did not interfere. He believed
in letting young people manage their own love affairs.

So that when the lift was finished, and the Princess and her ladies
crowded round to make the first ascent in it, there was Florizel dressed
in white satin knee-breeches, and coat with mother-o'-pearl buttons. He
had silver buckles to his shoes, and a tiny opal breast-pin on the
lappet of his coat, where the white flower goes at weddings.

When the Princess saw him she said:

'Now, none of you girls are to go in the lift at all, mind! It's _my_
lift. You can use the other one, or go up the mother-of-pearl staircase,
as usual.'

Then she stepped into the lift, and the silver doors clicked, and the
lift went up, just carrying her and him.

She had put on a white silky gown, to match the new lift, and she, too,
had silver buckles on her shoes, and a string of pearls round her
throat, and a silver chain set with opals in her dark hair; and she had
a bunch of jasmine flowers at her neck. As the lift went out of sight
the youngest lady-in-waiting whispered:

'What a pretty pair! Why, they're made for each other! What a pity he's
a lift-man! He looks exactly like a Prince.'

'Hold your tongue, silly!' said the eldest lady-in-waiting, and slapped
her.

The Princess went up and down in the lift all the morning, and when at
last she had to step out of it because the palace luncheon-bell had rung
three times, and the roast peacock was getting cold, the eldest
lady-in-waiting noticed that the Lift-man had a jasmine flower fastened
to his coat with a little opal pin.

The eldest lady-in-waiting kept a sharp eye on the Princess, but after
that first day the Princess only seemed to go up and down in the lift
when it was really necessary, and then she always took the youngest
lady-in-waiting with her; so that though the Lift-man always had a
flower in his buttonhole, there was no reason to suppose it had not been
given him by his mother.

'I suppose I'm a silly, suspicious little thing,' said the eldest
lady-in-waiting. 'Of course, it was the lift that amused her, just at
first. How _could_ a Princess be interested in a lift-man?'

Now, when people are in love, and want to be quite certain that they are
loved in return, they will take