"
"If I were a fool myself, madam, I might well complain of your broken
promise; and being, as you say, a man of sense, should I not complain
of what takes away all the happiness of my life? Tell me candidly, is
there anything in me, except my ugliness, which displeases you? Do you
object to my birth, my temper, my manners?"
"No, truly," replied the princess; "I like everything in you,
except"--and she hesitated courteously--"except your appearance."
"Then, madam, I need not lose my happiness; for if I have the gift of
making clever whosoever I love best, you also are able to make the
person you prefer as handsome as ever you please. Could you love me
enough to do that?"
"I think I could," said the princess, and her heart being greatly
softened towards him, she wished that he might become the handsomest
prince in all the world. No sooner had she done so than Riquet with
the Tuft appeared in her eyes the most elegant young man she had ever
seen.
Ill-natured people have said that this was no fairy-gift, but that
love created the change. They declare that the princess, when she
thought over her lover's perseverance, patience, good-humour, and
discretion, and counted his numerous fine qualities of mind and
disposition, saw no longer the deformity of his body or the plainness
of his features; that his hump was merely an exaggerated stoop, and
his awkward movements became only an interesting eccentricity.
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