w
that I have the mind which you have given me, and which renders me much
more difficult to please than before, that I should take to-day a
resolution which I could not then? If you seriously thought of marrying
me, you did very wrong to take away my stupidity, and so enable me to
see more clearly than I saw then." "If a man without intelligence,"
replied Riquet with the Tuft, "who reproached you with your breach of
promise, might have a right, as you have just intimated, to be treated
with indulgence, why would you, madam, that I should receive less
consideration in a matter which affects the entire happiness of my life?
Is it reasonable that persons of intellect should be in a worse position
than those that have none? Can you assert this--you who have so much,
and who so earnestly desired to possess it? But let us come to the
point, if you please. Setting aside my ugliness, is there anything in me
that displeases you? Are you dissatisfied with my birth, my
understanding, my temper, or my manners?"

"Not in the least," replied the Princess; "I admire in you everything
you have mentioned."

[Illustration: _Then said the Princess "I wish that you may be the
handsomest prince in the world."_ _Riquet with the Tuft._]

"If that is so," rejoined Riquet with the Tuft, "I shall soon be happy,
as you have it in your power to make me the most pleasing looking of
men."

"How can that be done?" asked the Princess.

"It can be done," said Riquet with the Tuft, "if you love me
sufficiently to wish that it should be. And, in order, madam, that you
should have no doubt about it, know that the same fairy, who, on the day
I was born, endowed me with the power to give intelligence to the person
I chose, gave you also the power to render handsome the man you should
love, and on whom you should wish to bestow this favour."

"If such be the fact," said the Princess, "I wish, with all my heart,
that you should become the handsomest and most lovable Prince in the
world, and I bestow the gift on you to the fullest extent in my power."

The Princess had no sooner pronounced these words than Riquet with the
Tuft appeared to her eyes, of all men in the world, the handsomest, the
best made, and most attractive she had ever seen. There are some who
assert that it was not the spell of the fairy, but love alone that
caused this metamorphosis. They say that the Princess, having reflected
on the perseverance of her lover, on his prudence, and o