ectacles, 'everyone who has read
any history knows that Lift-men don't have charmed lives. But our King
never would learn history, so he doesn't see that of course the Lift-man
is a Prince disguised. The question is, Will he find out in time? I
can't think why the Lift-man doesn't own his Princishness, and have done
with it.'

'Perhaps he doesn't know it himself,' said the King of Bohemia.

He gave his arm to his wife, and they managed to squeeze through to the
great council hall, where the King of that country sat on his gold
throne, surrounded by lords-in-waiting, judges in wigs, and other people
in other things.

Florizel was there loaded with chains, and standing in a very noble
attitude at one corner of the throne steps. At the other stood the
Princess, looking across at her lover with her dear gray eyes.

'Now,' said the King, 'I am tired of diplomacy and tact, and the eldest
lady-in-waiting is less of a Sherlock Holmes than I thought her, so let
us be straightforward and honest. Have you got a Charmed Life?'

'I haven't exactly got it,' said Florizel. 'My life is not my own now.'

'Did he give it to you?' the King asked his daughter.

'I cannot tell a lie, father,' said the Princess, just as though her
name had been George Washington instead of Candida; 'he did give it to
me.'

'What have you done with it?'

'I have hidden it in different places. I have saved it; he saved mine
once.'

'Where is it?' asked her father, 'as you so justly observe you cannot
tell a lie.'

'If I tell you,' said the Princess, 'will you give your Royal word that
the execution you have ordered for this morning shall be really the
last? You can destroy the object that I have hidden his Charmed Life in,
and then you can destroy him. But you must promise me not to ask me to
hide his Life in any new place, because I am tired of hide-and-seek.'

All the judges and lords-in-waiting and people felt really sorry for
the Princess, for they thought all these executions had turned her
brain.

'I give you my Royal word,' said the King upon his throne. 'I won't ask
you to hide his Life any more. Indeed, I was against the practice from
the first. Now, where have you hidden his Life?'

'In my heart,' said the Princess, brave and clear, so that everyone
heard her in the big hall. 'You can't take his Life without taking mine,
and if you take mine you may as well take his, for he won't care to go
on living without me.'

She sprang acros