"Nay, for it is perishable," he said.

Then tears like pearls came slowly from her eyes and she was driven
to say: "You alone have not asked me to dance. Did not my dancing
please you?"

He replied, "I am not like my brothers," and he bowed and left her.

That night she lay on her broad bed beneath silken covers and sobbed
bitterly because her heart told her that Prince Merlin was noble; yet her
memory stung her with his cold words and averted eyes. Soon the third day
would be over, and she would have to leave the court; for even if King
Cuthbert acknowledged that she was a princess, what did that matter if
Merlin did not know that she was his queen?

All next day she sat on the terrace which looks seaward and counted the
sails coming up over the horizon like white petals blown from an
invisible garden; and she would say, "If five come within a space of half
an hour there will be hope for me"; but she always lost count, in
thinking of his face.

That night she took off her woolen dress and she clothed herself in laces
and over the laces she put on a cream silk gown all woven with apple
blossoms, and she placed flowers upon her hair; then flashed before the
mirror and smiled to see herself so beautiful. "Surely," she thought, "he
will not turn from me to-night."

Then she put on her dancing-slippers; and went down. When she entered
the banquet hall there was a stir and a murmur; and even King Cuthbert
was silent with amazement over her beauty. Prince Hugh and Prince