lovely, and he stood gazing at her in delight.

On her side she seemed quite bewildered, but she looked about her with
happy eyes, and was not at all afraid of her deliverer.

He asked her name. She answered that she was called the Princess Zizi;
she was about sixteen years old, and for ten years of that time the
witch had kept her shut up in an orange, in the shape of a canary.

'Well, then, my charming Zizi,' said the young Prince, who was longing
to marry her, 'let us ride away quickly so as to escape from the wicked
witch.'

But Zizi wished to know where he meant to take her.

'To my father's castle,' he said.

He mounted his horse and took her in front of him, and, holding her
carefully in his arms, they began their journey.

VIII

Everything the Princess saw was new to her, and in passing through
mountains, valleys, and towns, she asked a thousand questions. Desire
was charmed to answer them. It is so delightful to teach those one
loves!

Once she inquired what the girls in his country were like.

'They are pink and white,' he replied, 'and their eyes are blue.'

'Do you like blue eyes?' said the Princess; but Desire thought it was
a good opportunity to find out what was in her heart, so he did not
answer.

'And no doubt,' went on the Princess, 'one of them is your intended
bride?'

Still he was silent, and Zizi drew herself up proudly.

'No,' he said at last. 'None of the girls of my own country are
beautiful in my eyes, and that is why I came to look for a wife in the
land of the sun. Was I wrong, my lovely Zizi?'

This time it was Zizi's turn to be silent.

IX

Talking in this way they drew near to the castle. When they were about
four stone-throws from the gates they dismounted in the forest, by the
edge of a fountain.

'My dear Zizi,' said Tubby's son, 'we cannot present ourselves before
my father like two common people who have come back from a walk. We must
enter the castle with more ceremony. Wait for me here, and in an hour I
will return with carriages and horses fit for a princess.'

'Don't be long,' replied Zizi, and she watched him go with wistful eyes.

When she was left by herself the poor girl began to feel afraid. She
was alone for the first time in her life, and in the middle of a thick
forest.

Suddenly she heard a noise among the trees. Fearing lest it should be
a wolf, she hid herself in the hollow trunk of a willow tree which hung
over the fountain. It was b