ld
yonder?"

"That is where poppies grow among ripening corn. But what have they to
do with the initial impulse?"

"They are it," said the stranger; "by means of those poppies I could
prepare for you the secret of sleep. But there would be a risk."

"You told me just now that in a dream it seemed to you that you were
sitting in a boat with an elephant, drinking tea, and the elephant had
on a small white coat with a rose in its buttonhole. That seemed as real
to you in the dream as it seems now that you are walking with me on the
edge of the forest?"

"Quite as real, absolutely real."

"Then for such a miraculous experience as that, who would not run any
risk? Come, we will go and gather poppies."

For the next few days the stranger was shut up in his apartments in the
palace, making the sleep-producing drug of which he knew. He had to test
it many times, that he might be assured that the Princess ran no risk.
And during these days the Princess Melissa gathered dry bracken and
carried it to the ruined temple that stood in the heart of the forest.
For it was there that she meant to yield to her great adventure.

The man continued to sleep at nights, always before a good audience. For
the wonderful story had been bruited abroad, and all the people in the
land were eager to see. One night he slept for a charity in which the
King was interested. Money was turned away at the doors, and the thing
was a great financial success. But one newspaper of the island
complained of the morbid character of the exhibition. "We cannot," wrote
the editor, "approve that this poor sufferer should be made to earn
money by what is doubtless his disease."

The time came at last on a hot afternoon in July. The Princess drank the
potion that was given her and lay down on the bed of bracken. The
stranger watched by her side.

"It is going to fail. I am not asleep," said the Princess; "I do not see
elephants or boats or anything but what is really here."

"Close your eyes," said the stranger; "relax your muscles, breathe
regularly, and count every breath you take up to ten. Then begin to
count again."

"It is no use," said the Princess wearily.

But in a few minutes she was fast asleep.

The Princess was young. Two years before she had fallen in love with a
man whom she could not marry, and the man had fallen in love with her.
There had been no scandal, such was the discretion that they used, but
there had been material for a scanda