The Prince’s Little Sweetheart.

She was very young.  No man had ever made love to her before.  She belonged to the people,—­the common people.  Her parents were poor, and could not buy any wedding trousseau for her.  But that did not make any difference.  A carriage was sent from the Court for her, and she was carried away “just as she was,” in her stuff gown,—­the gown the Prince first saw her in.  He liked her best in that, he said; and, moreover, what odds did it make about clothes?  Were there not rooms upon rooms in the palace, full of the most superb clothes for Princes’ Sweethearts?

It was into one of these rooms that she was taken first.  On all sides of it were high glass cases reaching up to the ceiling, and filled with gowns and mantles and laces and jewels; everything a woman could wear was there, and all of the very finest.  What satins, what velvets, what feathers and flowers!  Even down to shoes and stockings,—­every shade and color of stockings of the daintiest silk.  The Little Sweetheart gazed breathless at them all.  But she did not have time to wonder, for in a moment more she was met by attendants, some young, some old, all dressed gayly.  She did not dream at first that they were servants, till they began, all together, asking her what she would like to put on.  Would she have a lace gown, or a satin?  Would she like feathers or flowers?  And one ran this way, and one that; and among them all, the Little Sweetheart was so flustered she did not know if she were really alive and on the earth, or had been transported to some fairy land.  And before she fairly realized what was being done, they had her clad in the most beautiful gown that was ever seen,—­white satin with gold butterflies on it, and a white lace mantle embroidered in gold butterflies.  All white and gold she was, from top to toe, all but one foot; and there was something very odd about that.  She heard one of the women whispering to the other, behind her back:  “It is too bad there isn’t any mate to this slipper!  Well, she will have to wear this pink one.  It is too big; but if we pin it up at the heel she can keep it on.  The Prince really must get some more slippers.”

And then they put on her left foot a pink satin slipper, which was so much too big it had to be pinned up in plaits at each side, and the pearl buckle on the top hid her foot quite out of sight.  But the Little Sweetheart did not care.  In fact, she had no time to think, for the Queen came sailing in and spoke to her, and crowds of ladies in dresses so bright and beautiful that they dazzled her eyes; and the Prince was there kissing her, and in a minute they were married, and went floating off in a dance, which was so swift it did not feel so much like dancing as it did like being carried through the air by a gentle wind.