The Slim Princess | Page 2

Elizabeth had been a gaunt and wiry creature, or if
Joan of Arc had been so bulky that she could not have fastened on her
armor.
The soft layers which enshroud the hard machinery of the human frame
seem to arrive in a merely incidental or accidental sort of way. Yet
once they have arrived they exert a mysterious influence over careers.
Because of a mere change in contour, many a queen has lost her throne.
It is a terrifying thought when one remembers that fat so often comes
and so seldom goes.
It has been explained that in Morovenia, obesity and feminine beauty
increased in the same ratio. The woman reigning in the hearts of men
was the one who could displace the most atmosphere.
Because of the fashionableness of fat, Count Selim Malagaski,
Governor-General of Morovenia, was very unhappy. He had two
daughters. One was fat; one was thin. To be more explicit, one was
gloriously fat and the other was distressingly thin.
Jeneka was the name of the one who had been blessed abundantly.
Several of the younger men in official circles, who had seen Jeneka at a
distance, when she waddled to her carriage or turned side-wise to enter
a shop-door, had written verses about her in which they compared her
to the blushing pomegranate, the ripe melon, the luscious grape, and
other vegetable luxuries more or less globular in form.
No one had dedicated any verses to Kalora. Kalora was the elder of the
two. She had come to the alarming age of nineteen and no one had
started in bidding for her.
In court circles, where there is much time for idle gossip, the most

intimate secrets of an important household are often bandied about
when the black coffee is being served. The marriageable young men of
Morovenia had learned of the calamity in Count Malagaski's family.
They knew that Kalora weighed less than one hundred and twenty
pounds. She was tall, lithe, slender, sinuous, willowy, hideous. The fact
that poor old Count Malagaski had made many unsuccessful attempts
to fatten her was a stock subject for jokes of an unrefined and Turkish
character.
Whereas Jeneka would recline for hours at a time on a shaded veranda,
munching sugary confections that were loaded with nutritious nuts,
Kalora showed a far-western preference for pickles and olives, and had
been detected several times in the act of bribing servants to bring this
contraband food into the harem.
Worse still, she insisted upon taking exercise. She loved to play
romping games within the high walls of the inclosure where she and the
other female attaches of the royal household were kept penned up. Her
father coaxed, pleaded and even threatened, but she refused to lead the
indolent life prescribed by custom; she scorned the sweet and heavy
foods which would enable her to expand into loveliness; she
persistently declined to be fat.
Kalora's education was being directed by a superannuated professor
named Popova. He was so antique and book-wormy that none of the
usual objections urged against the male sex seemed to hold good in his
case, and he had the free run of the palace. Count Selim Malagaski
trusted him implicitly. Popova fawned upon the Governor-General, and
seemed slavish in his devotion. Secretly and stealthily he was working
out a frightful vengeance upon his patron. Twenty years before, Count
Selim, in a moment of anger, had called Popova a "Christian dog."
In Morovenia it is flattery to call a man a "liar." It is just the same as
saying to him, "You belong in the diplomatic corps." It is no disgrace to
be branded as a thief, because all business transactions are saturated
with treachery. But to call another a "Christian dog" is the thirty-third
degree of insult.

Popova writhed in spirit when he was called "Christian," but he
covered his wrath and remained in the nobleman's service and waited
for his revenge. And now he was sacrificing the innocent Kalora in
order to punish the father. He said to himself: "If she does not fatten,
then her father's heart will be broken, and he will suffer even as I have
suffered from being called Christian."
It was Popova who, by guarded methods, encouraged her to violent
exercise, whereby she became as hard and trim as an antelope. He
continued to supply her with all kinds of sour and biting foods and
sharp mineral waters, which are the sworn enemies of any sebaceous
condition. And now that she was nineteen, almost at the further
boundary of the marrying age, and slimmer than ever before, he
rejoiced greatly, for he had accomplished his deep and malign purpose,
and laid a heavy burden of sorrow upon Count Selim Malagaski.

III
THE CRUELTY OF LAW
If the father was worried