r44 PRINCE FILDERKIN

a.people whose characteristic was certainly
not by any means grace or beauty. Yet
grace and beauty were here in a remarkable
degree, and in vivid contrast to anything
which Prince Filderkin had yet seen in the
race of the hump-backed mountebanks.

In the figure before him there was not
the slightest vestige of a hump. It was,
indeed, somewhat below the middle height,
but its form and symmetry were perfect, the
features, full of life and animation, were such
as to leave no improvement possible, the
limbs were moulded in a shape which could
not be surpassed, and altogether the Prince
felt in a moment that he was gazing upon a
model of female beauty such as his wildest
dreams had never imagined.

It is impossible to describe the sensations
with which the Prince gazed upon this ex-
quisite creature, who was standing immedi-
ately opposite to him in an attitude which
displayed an astonishment at least equal to
his own. He felt as he had never felt
before, whilst the maiden, on her part, re-
garded him with evident fear, as a being of
some extraordinary species with which she
was as yet unacquainted.