However, a good fairy, who presided at his birth, assured his
mother that, though ugly, he would have so much sense and wit that he
would never be disagreeable; moreover, she bestowed on him the power
of communicating these gifts to the person he should love best in the
world. At this the queen was a little comforted, and became still more
so, when, as soon as he could speak, the infant began to say such
pretty and clever things that everybody was charmed with him. (I
forgot to mention that his name was Riquet with the Tuft, because he
was born with a curious tuft of hair on the top of his head.)
Seven or eight years after this, the queen of a neighbouring country
had two little daughters, twins, at whose birth the same fairy
presided. The elder twin was more beautiful than the day--the younger
so extremely ugly that the mother's extravagant joy in the first was
all turned to grief about the second. So, in order to calm her
feelings, the fairy told her that the one daughter should be as stupid
as she was pretty, while the other would grow up so clever and
charming that nobody would miss her want of beauty.
"Heaven grant it!" sighed the queen; "but are there no means of giving
a little sense to the one who is so beautiful?"
"I can do nothing for her, madam," returned the fairy--"nothing as
regards her own fortunes; but I grant her the power of making the
person who best pleases her as handsome as herself.
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