Chapters 14-17 Summary

"The Twelve Dancing Princesses" is a tale depicting the lives of twelve clever princesses who continually stump their father and the entire court by seemingly never leaving the castle, yet dancing every night until their shoes are in tatters.

The question is asked of what type of person would understand if one chose to dance from midnight to 6 A.M. Certainly, the runaway in Boston Common, who threw away everything to live on saltines and speed, would understand. The paralytic's wife who sits in a bar eating peanuts would understand. Passengers on an overnight flight from Boston to Paris would understand, as would an insomniac. The drunken poet, who makes phone calls at 3 A.M., would also understand, even as he puts you on hold to vomit. The amnesiac and the night nurse would also understand how one would want to...