But he could not help
noticing how very melancholy she was, and that all the elegant
compliments he made her did not seem to affect her in the least.
"I cannot comprehend, madam," said he, "how so charming and lovely a
lady can be so very sad. Never did I see anyone who could at all
compare with you."
"That's all you know," said the princess, and stopped.
"Beauty," continued the prince, sighing, "is so great an advantage
that, if one possessed it, one would never trouble oneself about
anything else.
"I wish I were as ugly as you and had some sense, rather than be as
handsome as I am, and such a fool."
"Madam," said Riquet politely, though her speech was not exactly
civil, "nothing shows intellect so much as the modesty of believing
one does not possess it."
"I don't know that; but I know I am a great fool, and it vexes me so,
that I wish I was dead," cried the princess bitterly.
"If that is all, madam, I can easily put an end to your grief, for I
have the power of making the person I love best as clever as I
please. I will do it, provided you consent to marry me."
The princess stood dumb with astonishment. She--to marry that little
frightful creature--scarcely a man at all!
"I see," said Riquet, "that my proposal offends and grieves you. Well,
I will give you a year to consider it."
Now the young lady was so stupid that she thought a year's end was a
long way off--so long that it seemed as if it might not come at all,
or something might happen between whiles.
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