wondering, for she had never seen a man before, save her father, the
King, and the Prince was very fair. So she bent closer and closer, until
her breath was on his cheek, and as he opened his eyes, she kissed him.

As for the Prince, he thought that he was still asleep, till he saw that
she was many times more beautiful than in his dreams, and he knew that
he had found her at last.

[Illustration: THE PRINCESS AND THE FAIRY]

"You are more beautiful than anything else in the world," he said, "and
I love you better than my life!"

"And I love you with all my heart!" said the Little Princess.

"Will you marry me," asked the Prince, "and live with me forever and
ever?"

"That I will," said the Princess, "and gladly, if my father, the King,
and my mother, the Queen, will let me leave the Garden."

And she told the Prince all about the wall with the triple gates.

The Prince saw that it would be no easy task to win the consent of the
King and the Queen, so nothing would do but that he must travel back to
the west and return with a proper retinue behind him.

So he bade the Princess good-by and rode bravely off toward the west.

The Princess went slowly back through fairyland, till she came to the
wall, just as the sun was breaking in the east. As every one knows,
White Magic is not of very much use in the daytime, outside of
fairyland, and if you ask why this is not so at christenings, I will
send you to Peter Knowall, who keeps the Big Red Book.

So the guards at the triple gates saw the Princess, and they raised such
a hub-bub, that the King and the Queen rushed out to see what all the
noise was about. You can easily believe that they were in a great way
when they saw the Little Princess, who they thought was safe asleep in
her bed.

They lost no time in bundling her through the gates, and then they fell
to kissing her, and scolding her, and shaking her, and hugging her, all
in the same breath.

But the Princess said, "I have been out into the world, and I am going
to marry the Prince!"

Then perhaps there was not a great to-do about the Garden!

They bullied and coaxed and scolded and wept, but the Princess only
said,

"I love him with all my heart and when the time comes I will go to him,
if I have to beg my way from door to door!"

At that the King flew into a towering rage.

"Very well, Miss!" he shouted. "But when you go, you may stay forever! I
will cut your name off the records, and any one wh