daughter of a convict, and it was the law for the convict’s children to wear these things.  ‘To-night,’ said the Prince, ’you shall wear a ring of gold and be a Princess,’ and he commanded John to file away the ring and take her upon his horse.  They rode across the creak and came to the palace; and the Prince, after kissing his father and mother, said, ’I have brought you all kinds of presents from abroad; but best of all I have brought home a bride.’  His parents, who wondered at her beauty, and never doubted but that she must be a king’s daughter, were full of joy, and set the bells ringing in all the seven churches.  So for a year everybody was happy, and at the end of that time a son was born.”

“You’re making it up,” said Honoria.  Taffy’s own stories always puzzled her, with hints and echoes from other stories she half-remembered, but could seldom trace home.  He had too cunning a gift.

George said, “Do be quiet!  Of course he’s making it up, but who wants to know that?”

“Two days afterward,” Taffy went on, “the Prince was out hunting with his foster-brother.  The Princess in her bed at home complained to her mother-in-law, ’Mother, my feet are cold.  Bring me another rug to wrap them in.’  The Queen did so, but as she covered the Princess’s feet she saw the red mark left by the ankle ring, and knew that her son’s wife was no true Princess, but a convict’s daughter.  And full of rage and shame she went away and mixed two cups.  The first she gave to the Princess to drink; and when it had killed her (for it was poison) she dipped a finger into the dregs and rubbed it inside the child’s lips, and very soon he was dead too.  Then she sent for two ankle-chains and weights—­one larger and one very small—­and fitted them on the two bodies and had them flung into the creek.  When the Prince came home he asked after his wife.  ’She is sleeping,’ said the Queen, ‘and you must be thirsty with hunting?’ She held out the second cup, and the Prince drank and passed it to John, who drank also.  Now in this cup was a drug which took away all memory.  And at once the Prince forgot all about his wife and child; and John forgot too.

“For weeks after this the Prince complained that he felt unwell.  He told the doctors that there was an empty place in his head, and they advised him to fill it by travelling.  So he set out again, and John went with him as before.  On their journey they stayed for a week with the King of Spain, and there the Prince fell in love with the King of Spain’s daughter, and married her, and brought her home at the end of a year, during which she, too, had brought him a son.

“The night after their return, when the Prince and his second wife slept, John kept watch outside the door.  About midnight he heard the noise of a chain dragging, but very softly, and up the stairs came a lady in white with a child in her arms.  John knew his former mistress at once, and all his memory came back to him, but she put a finger to her lips and went past him into the bed-chamber.  She went to the bed, laid a hand on her husband’s pillow, and whispered:”