The Faery Tales of Weir | Page 7

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 Richard came forward to meet her, and they bowed low, and looked very noble, indeed.
"Our father has played a merry jest upon us," they said. "You are, indeed, a princess and no beggar-maid." Then they began to dispute which should take her in to dinner. But her eyes were all for Prince Merlin, who, when the courtiers crowded about her and proclaimed her a princess, looked straight away from her. This was as a little sword in her heart, but the grief that dimmed her eyes made her appear even more beautiful.
After the banquet all proceeded to the dancing-hall, and King Cuthbert gave his arm to her. "Now I know thou art the Princess Myrtle. Which of my sons hast thou chosen?"
"A woman is chosen; she does not choose," she replied, for her heart was heavy. "To-night I must leave your court."
"Wilt thou continue thy search, Princess Myrtle?" the King said anxiously.
"No, I will return to my Kingdom."
"And what wilt thou do there?"
"I will weep," she answered.
She danced a measure with Prince Hugh and a measure with Prince Richard; then she saw that though Prince Merlin was in white satin and gold he did not dance, but stood alone by the orange-tree.
When she was free she sent a herald to fetch him, for now she desired no longer to play a part, but to be herself. He came slowly to where she stood, and bowed before her in silence.
"Tell me, Prince Merlin," she said, "if you agree with these courtiers that to-night I am become a princess?"
"I do not agree with them," he answered. "Clothes do not make a princess."
Then they looked at each other. "Will you meet me," she said, "on the edge of the wild forest in half an hour's time?"
"I am your servant," he replied.
She stole away to her rooms, where the moonlight lay athwart the tessellated marble floor, and opened the casement and placed the lamp there, which was to be the signal for her attendants to have her horses ready on the edge of the wild forest. Then she put on the gown she had worn as a beggar-girl, and her wooden shoes, and let her hair down over her shoulders.
The way to the wild forest was haunted with shadows and little fleeing things; and the night-owls called, but she remembered the look in Merlin's eyes, and conquered her fears.
And there he was waiting, with the moonlight gleaming on his white satin; and his face turned to the path up which she came.
She held out her hand to him with the blue velvet glove upon it, and she said softly, "Will you look into my mirror, Prince Merlin?"
"I am your servant," he said again, then looked.
His eyes became full of light. "I see your face," he cried; and sank upon one knee. She gave him both her hands.
"What am I to you?" she asked. "A princess?"
"No," he whispered.
"A beggar-girl?"
"No," he whispered.
"What then?"
"Thou art my love."
Then all the birds in all the world sang in her heart. "Tell me," she said, "why, then, didst thou sink thy ball?"
"That no hands should ever touch it after thine."
"And why didst thou say when thou didst lead me in to dinner, that thou wast sorry not for me, but for thyself?"
"I feared that thou wouldst never love me."
Then she laughed joyfully and asked, "Why didst thou say 'I am not like my brothers' when I asked thee to dance?"
"I wanted thee for thyself, not for thy dancing."
And now the stars moved all to nuptial music. "One question more," she cried. "Why didst thou say 'Clothes do not make a princess'?"
"Because I knew thou wast a princess the first hour I saw thee."
"Rise up, my Prince," she said. "We have a long journey before us."
"I hear the neighing of horses," he said, "and the moving of feet."
"My attendants," she replied. "My foster-mother rides with them. She gave me the blue glove, and told me he should be my husband who should see not his own face in the mirror, but mine."
"I see thy face everywhere," cried Prince Merlin.
So he kissed her, and they rode away with all her train through the sighing night-wind and beneath the summer