some enchanter, and that
at any rate, should he ever hear of Honey-Bee's love, he would disdain
it.

"Without being old," the king meditated, "I have already lived too long
not to have suffered sometimes. And yet my sufferings, intense though
they were, were less painful than those of which I am conscious to-day.
With the tenderness and pity which caused them was mingled something
of their own divine sweetness. Now, on the contrary, my grief has the
baseness and bitterness of an evil desire. My soul is desolate and the
tears in my eyes are like an acid that burns them."

So thought King Loc. And fearing that jealousy might make him unjust
and wicked he avoided meeting the young girl, for fear that in spite of
himself, he might use towards her the language of a man either weak or
brutal.

One day when he was more than ever tormented by the thought that
Honey-Bec loved George, he decided to consult Nur, the most learned
of all the dwarfs, who lived at the bottom of a well deep down in the
bowels of the earth.

This well had the advantage of an even and soft temperature. It was
not dark, for two little stars, a pale sun and a red moon, alternately
illumined all parts. King Loc descended into the well and found Nur in
his laboratory. Nur looked like a kind little old man, and he wore a
sprig of wild thyme in his hood. In spite of his learning he had the
innocence and candour characteristic of his race.

"Nur," said the king as he embraced him, "I have come to consult you
because you know many things."

"King Loc," replied Nur, "I might know a good deal and yet be an idiot.
But I possess the knowledge of how to learn some of the innumerable
things I do not know, and that is the reason I am so justly famous for
my learning."

"Well, then," said King Loc, "can you tell me the whereabouts at present
of a young man by the name of George of Blanchelande?"

"I do not know and I never cared to know," replied Nur. "Knowing as I
do the ignorance, stupidity and wickedness of mankind, I don't trouble
myself as to what they say or do. Humanity, King Loc, would be entirely
deplorable and ridiculous if it were not that something of value is
given to this proud and miserable race, inasmuch as the men are endowed
with courage, the women with beauty, and the little children with
innocence. Obliged by necessity, as are also the dwarfs, to toil,
mankind has rebelled against this divine law, and instead of being, like
ourselves, will