ce. The poor mother was doubly anxious because he seemed so
unconscious of the risk he ran up there and looked about him even more
boldly and self-reliantly than usual.

The dome was already perfectly round. Why wasn't it finished, and why
must he go on climbing again and again that frightful scaffolding?

"Nonna, Nonna, you must look, I can stand it no longer," she cried one
day after she had been regarding the glass for a long time. "Hold me--he
is going to jump. Nonna, is he safe? I can no longer see." And the glass
shook in her hand.

"Oh!" the old woman answered, heaving a sigh of relief, "there he stands
as solidly and firmly as the statue of Wendelin I. in the market-place.
See...."

"Yes, yes, there he is," the duchess cried and fell on her knees to
thank Heaven.

The nurse continued to look in the glass. Suddenly she shrieked aloud
and her mistress sank together and covered her face with her hands. "Has
he fallen? Is he dead?" she groaned.

But Nonna, despite her gout, sprang up and ran to her mistress with the
mirror in her hand and stammering, half laughing and half crying, like
one drunk yet possessed of his senses: "George, our George, look. Our
prince has the grey lock. Here, before my very eyes I saw it grow."

The duchess jumped up, cast one glance into the glass, saw the grey lock
distinctly, and then forgetting that she was a princess and Nonna but
a humble servant, threw her arms about her and kissed her on the mouth,
above which grew so luxuriant a moustache that many a page would gladly
have exchanged his young upper lip for her older one. Then the duchess
reached once more for the mirror to assure herself that her eyes had
not been deceived, but her fingers trembled so with excitement that the
glass slipped from her hand and fell to the floor where it broke in a
thousand pieces.

What a fright it gave them! Fortunately Nonna, after a lifetime spent
in the care of babies, had laid aside what we call nerves, else she had
certainly fallen in a swoon like her mistress; she was consequently able
to support the duchess and soothe her with gentle words.

In the meanwhile the young architect from the staging inspected the
stone which crowned the dome and found that it had been well set. But
he had no suspicion that the grey lock had grown on his head. Older
architects came and absorbed his attention. They pressed his hand,
praised him and said that he had just finished a marvellous work of
art.