e Princess stayed where she was, dreaming of her delightful Prince,
and nothing could have been further from her thoughts than any trouble
or misfortune, when suddenly, in a cloud of dust and shavings, by came
the enchanter Grumedan, and unluckily he chanced to catch sight of
Potentilla. Down he came straightway and alighted at her feet, and one
look at her charming blue eyes and smiling lips quite decided him that
he must appear to her at once, though he was rather annoyed to remember
that he had on only his second-best cloak. The Princess sprang to her
feet with a cry of terror at this sudden apparition, for really the
Enchanter was no beauty. To begin with, he was very big and clumsy, then
he had but one eye, and his teeth were long, and he stammered badly;
nevertheless, he had an excellent opinion of himself, and mistook the
Princess's cry of terror for an exclamation of delighted surprise. After
pausing a moment to give her time to admire him, the Enchanter made her
the most complimentary speech he could invent, which, however, did not
please her at all, though he was extremely delighted with it himself.
Poor Potentilla only shuddered and cried:

'Oh! where is my Narcissus?'

To which he replied with a self-satisfied chuckle: 'You want a
narcissus, madam? Well, they are not rare; you shall have as many as you
like.'

Whereupon he waved his wand, and the Princess found herself surrounded
and half buried in the fragrant flowers. She would certainly have
betrayed that this was not the kind of narcissus she wanted, but for the
Fairy Melinette, who had been anxiously watching the interview, and now
thought it quite time to interfere. Assuming the Prince's voice, she
whispered in Potentilla's ear:

'We are menaced by a great danger, but my only fear is for you, my
Princess. Therefore I beg you to hide what you really feel, and we will
hope that some way out of the difficulty may present itself.'

The Princess was much agitated by this speech, and feared lest the
Enchanter should have overheard it; but he had been loudly calling
her attention to the flowers, and chuckling over his own smartness in
getting them for her; and it was rather a blow to him when she said very
coldly that they were not the sort she preferred, and she would be glad
if he would send them all away. This he did, but afterwards wished to
kiss the Princess's hand as a reward for having been so obliging; but
the Fairy Melinette was not going to all