The Princess Of Bagdad Part 11

Exactly.

TReVELe.

Happy time! Where did they reign?

G.o.dLER.

At Bagdad.

TReVELe.

Thank you.

G.o.dLER.

This king and this queen had an only son, who was to succeed them. This son, 23 years old, took much too seriously his part of heir-presumptive.

But what was the use of having a crown, if, in his turn, he was not to have an heir to leave it to? However, nothing in the young prince indicated the least inclination towards love, legitimate or otherwise.

TReVELe.

He was not like you.

G.o.dLER.

No, he was not like me.

TReVELe.

Go on.

G.o.dLER.

Always study; always reflection; always indifference.

TReVELe.

A strange prince!

G.o.dLER.

The amba.s.sadors opened negotiation upon negotiation uselessly with foreign courts in view of a political alliance. Several young princesses of surrounding countries, of Hindostan, of Persia, and even of Europe....

TReVELe.

How well you relate a thing!

G.o.dLER.

Were waiting full-dressed, their hair well-dressed and splendidly perfumed, for the king of Bagdad to ask their hand for his son. The telegraph replied always: Wait! Wait!

TReVELe.

Go on quickly.

G.o.dLER.

A chamberlain had a very simple idea.

TReVELe.

In general the ideas of chamberlains are very simple.

G.o.dLER.

This was, to let the prince travel, in order that he might see other women than those of Bagdad, since they were acknowledged to be insufficient, and to send him at once to Paris.

TReVELe.

Bad complaints require strong remedies.

G.o.dLER.

But this was not all; beauty was necessary, and it must be stock of a particular kind: also those that he did not marry must differ only in rank from the one he did marry. In fact, it was not a Lycoenion, but a perfect Chloe, that was sought for the instruction of this Daphnis, and it was not to be child's play.

TReVELe.

I see the young Lionnette dawning. But how did everything come about?

G.o.dLER.

That will make the subject of the following chapter. The amba.s.sador of Bagdad came with us sometimes in the evening, to eat chesnuts and drink cider at Madame Duranton's.

TReVELe.

And he discovered a way of leading the prince to eat the cherries and almonds?

G.o.dLER.

Who acquired such a taste for these delicious fruits, that he wanted to eat nothing else, had no wish to go away, had no inclination whatever for study, no longer wished to reign--he wanted to marry. However, the king, informed and satisfied on the subject, recalled his son. He must go back to Bagdad. Daphnis wept, and Chloe also.

TReVELe.

You are king, you cry, and I depart.

G.o.dLER.

And that is how the beautiful Lionnette came into the world; having for legal father a Marquis de Quansas, a ruined gentleman, rather a bad character, who turned up just at the right moment to lay his hand on a marriage portion, give his name to the mother and daughter, and die a short time after, without falling into the hands of the correctional police, as every one expected to see him do.

TReVELe.