rl, who felt much confused, only managed to stammer out as an
excuse that her father had sent her.

'Very well,' replied the young man; 'then come with me.'

So he took her through the opening made by the torn-up root, and they
travelled till they reached a beautiful palace, splendidly furnished,
but only lighted from the top. And when they had entered he told
her that he was a great lord, and that never had he seen a maiden so
beautiful as she, and that if she would give him her heart they would be
married and live happy for ever after.

And the maiden said 'yes, she would,' and so they were married.

The next day the old dame who looked after the house handed her all the
keys, but pointed her out one that she would do well never to use, for
if she did the whole palace would fall to the ground, and the grass
would grow over it, and the damsel herself would be remembered no more.

The bride promised to be careful, but in a little while, when there was
nothing left for her to do, she began to wonder what could be in the
chest, which was opened by the key. As everybody knows, if we once begin
to think we soon begin to do, and it was not very long before the key
was no longer in the maiden's hand but in the lock of the chest. But the
lock was stiff and resisted all her efforts, and in the end she had to
break it. And what was inside after all? Why, nothing but a serpent's
skin, which her husband, who was, unknown to her, a magician, put on
when he was at work; and at the sight of it the girl was turning away
in disgust, when the earth shook violently under her feet, the palace
vanished as if it had never been, and the bride found herself in the
middle of a field, not knowing where she was or whither to go. She burst
into a flood of bitter tears, partly at her own folly, but more for the
loss of her husband, whom she dearly loved. Then, breaking a sprig of
rosemary off a bush hard by, she resolved, cost what it might, to seek
him through the world till she found him. So she walked and she walked
and she walked, till she arrived at a house built of straw. And she
knocked at the door, and asked if they wanted a servant. The mistress
said she did, and if the girl was willing she might stay. But day by day
the poor maiden grew more and more sad, till at last her mistress begged
her to say what was the matter. Then she told her story--how she was
going through the world seeking after her husband.

And her mistress answered