“Yes you are,” he said, “and I love you with all my heart.”
And with that he caught her in his arms and kissed her; and the Real Kitchen-Maid laid her face against his, and her heart beat wildly, for she knew what the Prince did not, and what, indeed, all the folk knew except the Prince, that this had been foretold at his christening; but she knew also that though he loved her, he was not to marry her, since it was his dreadful destiny to marry some one with four feet and no hands.
“I wish I had no hands and four feet,” said the Real Kitchen-maid to herself. “I wouldn’t mind a bit, since it is me he loves.”
“What are you saying?” asked the Prince.
“I am saying that you must go,” said she. “If their Kitchen Highnesses find you here with me they’ll tear me into little pieces, for they all love you—to a Highness.”
“And you,” he whispered, “how much do you love me?”
“Oh,” she answered, “I love you better than my right hand and my left.”
And the Prince thought that a very strange answer. He went through that day in a happy dream; but he did not tell his dream to any
