146 PRINCE FILDERKIN.

but nevertheless it must be risked if need be,
for I am here for the purpose of getting rid
of that cruel burden which alone causes me
to resemble the race of whom you speak.’

‘Get rid of your hump !’ cried the lady in
the greatest surprise. ‘Your words show
me at once that you are not one of us,
for no hump-backed mountebank ever
cherished such a desire for one single
moment.’

‘What!’ exclaimed the Prince with in-
creased wonder. ‘Is it possible that you
belong to this people ?’

‘It is, indeed,’ responded the lady with a

“sigh. ‘Iam the only daughter of the King
of this country, but my mother was of a
different race, and I have inherited her
deformity.’

‘Deformity!’ cried Prince Filderkin.
‘What a melancholy misuse of words! If
you are deformed, then honey is bitter,
darkness is light, and virtue vicious. Until
I saw you I had only dreamed what angels
were, but now 2

‘Hush!’ said the Princess (for her rank
had been disclosed by her previous speech),
‘hush!’ But as she said the word, the blush