THE CURSE-—-THE WAY OUT 151

follow his angelic Princess, and take the
chance of what might happen. In case of
accidents, he thought it best to put his banjo
under his arm, and, having done this, he
ascended the marble staircase, passed through
a corridor at the top of it, and boldly entered
an open doorway which he saw before him.

In an instant he perceived that he was in
the library of the palace. Books of all sorts
and sizes were around him, the book-cases
of ebonised mahogany giving a somewhat
gloomy appearance to the room, which, how-
ever, was relieved by the enormous windows.
Gold was again to be seen in profusion
around the room: gold sofas, gold chairs,
gold footstools, and even the coal-scuttles
were made of the same precious metal. At
a little distance from each end of the room
was a large richly-ornamented library table,
and exactly in the middle of the space be-
tween the two was one of larger size, in the
exact centre of which stood the crystal case
in purple velvet upon which rested the hopes
of Prince Filderkin.

He recognised it at once, and would have
fastened his eyes upon it to the exclusion of
all the other contents of the room, had there