Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia | Page 2

round the shelves. "Now,
when I was a boy, my dear mother tried to prevent me from reading
fairy books, because she did not believe in fairies."
"But she was wrong, you know," said the queen. "Why, if it had not
been for all these fairy presents, the Cap of Darkness and all the rest of
them, you never could have killed the Fire-beast and the Ice-beast,
and--you never could have married me," the queen added, in a happy
whisper, blushing beautifully, for that was a foolish habit of hers.
"It is quite true," said the king, "and therefore I thought it best to bring
Dick up on fairy books, that he might know what is right, and have no
nonsense about him. But perhaps the thing has been overdone; at all
events, it is not a success. I wonder if fathers and sons will ever
understand each other, and get on well together? There was my poor
father, King Grognio, he wanted me to take to adventures, like other
princes, fighting Firedrakes, and so forth; and I did not care for it, till
you set me on," and he looked very kindly at her Majesty. "And now,
here's Dick," the monarch continued, "I can't hold him back. He is
always after a giant, or a dragon, or a magician, as the case may be; he
will certainly be ploughed for his examination at College. Never opens
a book. What does he care, off after every adventure he can hear about?
An idle, restless youth! Ah, my poor country, when I am gone, what

may not be your misfortunes under Ricardo!"
Here his Majesty sighed, and seemed plunged in thought.
"But you are not going yet, my dear," said the queen. "Why you are not
forty! And young people will be young people. You were quite proud
when poor Dick came home with his first brace of gigantic fierce birds,
killed off his own sword, and with such a pretty princess he had
rescued--dear Jaqueline? I'm sure she is like a daughter to me. I cannot
do without her."
"I wish she were a daughter-in-law; I wish Dick would take a fancy to
marry her," said the king. "A nicer girl I never saw."
"And so accomplished," added Queen Rosalind. "That girl can turn
herself into anything--a mouse, a fly, a lion, a wheelbarrow, a church! I
never knew such talent for magic. Of course she had the best of
teachers, the Fairy Paribanou herself; but very few girls, in our time,
devote so many hours to practice as dear Jaqueline. Even now, when
she is out of the schoolroom, she still practises her scales. I saw her
turning little Dollie into a fish and back again in the bath-room last
night. The child was delighted."
In these times, you must know, princesses learned magic, just as they
learn the piano nowadays; but they had their music lessons too, dancing,
calisthenics, and the use of the globes.
"Yes, she's a dear, good girl," said the king; "yet she looks melancholy.
I believe, myself, that if Ricardo asked her to marry him, she would not
say 'No.' But that's just one of the things I object to most in Dick.
Round the world he goes, rescuing ladies from every kind of
horror--from dragons, giants, cannibals, magicians; and then, when a
girl naturally expects to be married to him, as is usual, off he rides! He
has no more heart than a flounder. Why, at his age I--"
"At his age, my dear, you were so hard-hearted that you were quite a
proverb. Why, I have been told that you used to ask girls dreadful
puzzling questions, like 'Who was Caesar Borgia?' 'What do you know

of Edwin and Morcar?' and so on."
"I had not seen you then," said the king.
"And Ricardo has not seen her, whoever she may be. Besides, he can't
possibly marry all of them. And I think a girl should consider herself
lucky if she is saved from a dragon or a giant, without expecting to be
married next day."
"Perhaps; but it is usual," said the king, "and their families expect it,
and keep sending ambassadors to know what Dick's intentions are. I
would not mind it all so very much if he killed the monsters off his own
sword, as he did that first brace, in fair fight. But ever since he found
his way into that closet where the fairy presents lie, everything has been
made too easy for him. It is a royal road to glory, or giant-slaying made
easy. In his Cap of Darkness a poor brute of a dragon can't see him. In
his Shoes of Swiftness the giants can't catch him. His Sword of
Sharpness would cut any oak asunder at