in, she would be obliged to marry him; and then, perhaps, they could
settle down in some place where it was quiet and peaceful. So, on the
same morning in which the Princess rode away, he put on a handsome
suit of black clothes, and mounting a gentle white horse, he rode out
of the city. Only one person saw him go; for, even at that early
hour, the people were so busy that little attention was paid to his
movements.

About half way between these two cities, in a tall tower which stood
upon a hill, there lived an Inquisitive Dwarf, whose whole object in
life was to find out what people were doing and why they did it. From
the top of this tower he generally managed to see all that was going
on in the surrounding country; and in each of the two cities that
have been mentioned he had an agent, whose duty it was to send him
word, by means of carrier pigeons, whenever a new thing happened.
Before breakfast, on the morning when the Prince and Princess rode
away, a pigeon from the city of the Prince came flying to the tower
of the Inquisitive Dwarf.

"Some new building started, I suppose," said the Dwarf, as he took
the little roll of paper from under the pigeon's wing. "But no; it is
very different! 'The Prince has ridden away from the city alone, and
is travelling to the north.'"

But before he could begin to puzzle his brains about the meaning of
this departure, another pigeon came flying in from the city of the
Princess.

"Well!" cried the Dwarf, "this is amazing! It is a long time since I
have had a message from that city, and my agent has been drawing his
salary without doing any work. What possibly can have happened
there?"

When he read that the Princess had ridden alone from the city that
morning, and was travelling to the south, he was truly amazed.

"What on earth can it mean?" he exclaimed. "If the city of the Prince
were to the south of that of the Princess, then I might understand
it; for they would be going to see each other, and that would be
natural enough. But as his city is to the north of her city, they are
travelling in opposite directions. And what is the meaning of this? I
most certainly must find out."

The Inquisitive Dwarf had three servants whom he employed to attend
to his most important business. These were a Gryphoness, a Water
Sprite, and an Absolute Fool. This last one was very valuable; for
there were some things he would do which no one else would think of
attempting. The Dwarf called