'Ye Loves and Genial Hours, conspire
To gratify this Royal Pair
With Sons impetuous as their Sire,
And Daughters as their Mother fair!'

"Thank you," said Ferdinand. "But we are very busy to-day and must take
one thing at a time. Can you tell us the way to the sea, please?"

The woman pointed along a path which led to a moss-covered gate and an
orchard where the apple-blossom piled itself in pink clouds against the
blue sky: as they followed the path they heard her laughing, and looked
back to see her still staring after them and laughing merrily, while
Valentine and Orson leaned on their swords and laughed too.

The orchard was the prettiest in the whole world. Blackbirds played
hide-and-seek beneath the boughs, blue and white violets hid in the tall
grass around the boles, and the spaces between were carpeted with
daisies to the edge of a streamlet. Over the streamlet sang thrushes
and goldfinches and bull-finches innumerable, and their voices shook
down the blossom like a fall of pink snow, which threatened to cover
even the daisies. The Grand Duke and the Princess believed that all
this beauty was in their honour, no less than the chorus of the bells
floating across the tree-tops from the city.

"This is the best of all," said Ferdinand as they seated themselves by
the stream. "I had no idea marriage was such fun. And they haven't
even forgotten the trout!" he cried, peering over the brink.

"Can you make daisy-chains?" asked the Princess timidly.

He could not; so she taught him, feeling secretly proud that there was
something he could learn of her. When the chain was finished he flung
it over his neck and kissed her. "Though I don't like kissing, as a
rule," he explained.

"And this shall be my wedding present," said she.

"Why, I brought you six waggon-loads!--beauties--all chosen by my
Chancellor."

"But he didn't make or choose this one," said Sophia, "and I like this
one best." They sat silent for a moment. "Dear me," she sighed,
"what a lot we have to learn of each other's ways!"

"Hullo!" Ferdinand was staring down the glade. "What's that line at the
end there, across the sky?"

Sophia turned. "I think that's the sea--yes, there is a ship upon it."

"But why have they hung a blue cloth in front of it?"

"I expect that's in our honour too."

They took hands and trotted to the end of the orchard; and there, beyond
the hedge, ran a canal, and beyond the cana