She looked grave, and her laughing sounded uncommonly like
screaming--that was all. The good old tyrant, though he put on his
best gold spectacles to look, could not discover the smallest cloud
in the serene blue of her eyes.



9. Put Me in Again.


It must have been about this time that the son of a king, who lived
a thousand miles from Lagobel set out to look for the daughter of
a queen. He travelled far and wide, but as sure as he found a
princess, he found some fault in her. Of course he could not marry
a mere woman, however beautiful; and there was no princess to be
found worthy of him. Whether the prince was so near perfection that
he had a right to demand perfection itself, I cannot pretend to
say. All I know is, that he was a fine, handsome, brave, generous,
well-bred, and well-behaved youth, as all princes are.

In his wanderings he had come across some reports about our
princess; but as everybody said she was bewitched, he never dreamed
that she could bewitch him. For what indeed could a prince do with
a princess that had lost her gravity? Who could tell what she might
not lose next? She might lose her visibility, or her tangibility;
or, in short, the power of making impressions upon the radical
sensorium; so that he should never be able to tell whether she was
dead or alive. Of course he made no further inquiries about her.
One day he lost sight of his retinue in a great forest. These
forests are very useful in delivering princes from their courtiers,