thousand kindnesses as with one voice: "How canst thou forget us, Olga?
We were done for love's sweet sake, and that alone!"

Then was Olga sorry and ashamed that she had been so proud and
forgetful, and she wept again. The tears seemed to clear her vision, for
now she saw plainly that through no power of her own could she wrest
strange favours from fortune. Only the power of the old charm could make
them hers. She remembered it then, and holding fast the one bead in her
hand, she repeated humbly:

"For love's sweet sake, in my hour of need,
Blossom and deck me, little seed."

Lo, as the words left her lips, the moon shone out from behind the
clouds above the dark forest. There was a fragrance of lilies all
about, and a gossamer gown floated around her, whiter than the whiteness
of the fairest lily. It was fine like the finest lace the frost-elves
weave, and softer than the softest ermine of the snow. On her long
golden hair gleamed a coronet of pearls.

So beautiful, so dazzling was she as she entered the castle door, that
the Prince came down to meet her, and kneeling, kissed her hand and
claimed her as his bride. Then came the bishop in his mitre, and led her
to the throne, and before them all the Flax-spinner's maiden was married
to the Prince, and made the Princess Olga.

Then until the seven days and seven nights were done, the revels lasted
in the castle. And in the merriment the old Flax-spinner was again
forgotten. Her kindness of the past, her loneliness in the present had
no part in the thoughts of the Princess Olga.