r's house.'

The king thought this a very strange request; but said to himself it
was, after all, his son's affair, and the girl would surely soon get
tired of going to and fro. So he made no difficulty, and everything
was speedily arranged and the wedding was celebrated with great
rejoicings.

At first, the condition attaching to his wedding with the lovely
Dorani troubled the prince very little, for he thought that he would
at least see his bride all day. But, to his dismay, he found that she
would do nothing but sit the whole time upon a stool with her head
bowed forward upon her knees, and he could never persuade her to say a
single word. Each evening she was carried in a palanquin to her
father's house, and each morning she was brought back soon after
daybreak; and yet never a sound passed her lips, nor did she show by
any sign that she saw, or heard, or heeded her husband.

One evening the prince, very unhappy and troubled, was wandering in an
old and beautiful garden near the palace. The gardener was a very aged
man, who had served the prince's great grandfather; and when he saw
the prince he came and bowed himself to him, and said:

'Child! child! why do you look so sad--is aught the matter?' Then the
prince replied, 'I am sad, old friend, because I have married a wife
as lovely as the stars, but she will not speak to me, and I know not
what to do. Night after night she leaves me for her father's house,
and day after day she sits in mine as though turned to stone, and
utters no word, whatever I may do or say.'

The old man stood thinking for a moment, and then he hobbled off to
his own cottage. A little later he came back to the prince with five
or six small packets, which he placed in his hands and said:

'To-morrow, when your bride leaves the palace, sprinkle the powder
from one of these packets upon your body, and while seeing clearly,
you will become yourself invisible. More I cannot do for you, but may
all go well!'

And the prince thanked him, and put the packets carefully away in his
turban.

The next night, when Dorani left for her father's house in her
palanquin, the prince took out a packet of the magic powder and
sprinkled it over himself, and then hurried after her. He soon found
that, as the old man had promised, he was invisible to everyone,
although he felt as usual, and could see all that passed. He speedily
overtook the palanquin and walked beside it to the scent-seller's
dwelling. Th