her white dress,
wondering what the king intended to do, and whether it was something that
Dick would not like.

"How stupid of me," she said at length, "after all the lessons I have
had. Why, I can _drink the moon_!"

Now, this is a way of knowing what anyone else is thinking of and intends
to do, for the moon sees and knows everything. Whether it is _quite
fair_ is another matter; but, at all events, it is not _listening_. And
anyone may see that, if you are a magician, like the Princess Jaqueline,
a great many difficult questions as to what is right and wrong at once
occur which do not trouble other people. King Prigio's secret, why he
sent for the tailor and the other people, was his own secret. The
princess decided that she would not find it out by turning herself into
Rip or the cat (whose name was Semiramis), and, so far, she was quite
right. But she was very young, and it never occurred to her that it was
just as wrong to find out what the king meant by _drinking the moon_ as
by listening in disguise. As she grew older she learned to know better;
but this is just the danger of teaching young girls magic, and for that
very reason it has been given up in most countries.

However, the princess did not think about right and wrong, unluckily. She
went to the bookcase and took down her _Cornelius Agrippa_, in one great
tall black volume, with silver clasps which nobody else could open; for,
as the princess said, there are books which it would never do to leave
lying about where the servants or anybody could read them. Nobody could
undo the clasps, however strong or clever he might be; but the princess
just breathed on them and made a sign, and the book flew open at the
right place--Book IV., chapter vi., about the middle of page 576.

The magic spell was in Latin, of course; but the princess knew Latin very
well, and soon she had the magic song by heart. Then she closed the book
and put it back on the shelf. Then she threw open the window and drew
back the curtains, and put out all the lights except two scented candles
that burned with a white fire under a round mirror with a silver frame,
opposite the window. And into that mirror the moon shone white and full,
filling all the space of it, so that the room was steeped in a strange
silver light. Now the whole room seemed to sway gently, waving and
trembling; and as it trembled it sounded and rang with a low silver
music, as if it were filled with the w