is allying itself with? Why don’t you kiss me?”
“I? Kiss you?” He chewed his ragged white mustache thoughtfully. “That's right—I could break the spell, couldn't I?”
“Sure,” I replied excitedly. “And if you kiss me I'll turn back into a princess again. And I'll marry you. Nine hundred and thirty years ago, you vowed eternal devotion. Don’t tell me that the mere passage of time has made you fickle?”
He smiled, showing long yellow teeth. “Oh, I'm still true to you, Dipsy. And, to prove that I love you for yourself and not for your beauty, I’m going to leave you in your present form so I can demonstrate my faithfulness.”
“You mean you won’t kiss me?” I breathed fire.
“That’s right. When you were eighteen and I was twenty-two, we were just right for each other. But, if I kiss you, you’ll become an eighteen-year-old princess again, while I'll still be a nine hundred and fifty-two-year-old zoo attendant. You wouldn’t stay with me, for I’ll have neither spells nor money to hold you. Anyway, at my age I'm too old for the pleasures of the flesh. I can enjoy a beautiful spiritual communion with you in your dragon shape.”
“I could eat you,” I threatened. “Let’s see what chance immortality has against the gastric juices.”
“Sure you could. But remember you’d be eating the only person remaining in the world who can understand Dragon. Immortality is a long and lonely thing, Dipsy.”
So it looked as if I were stuck.
I tried to rationalize the situation. After all, I told myself, the zoo was better than the bottom of the lake. Certainly I had much more chance of running into a prince there. Moreover, I led an active social life—people thronged like mad from all over to see me, quite like in the old days at dear Papa’s court—and Suleiman read me all the latest books and periodicals so that I was au courant.
He also managed to convince Manfred that I wasn't entirely herbivorous, and so occasionally I did get to have a nice kipper with my tea. And sometimes, when he was in a good mood, Suleiman would get me a box of popcorn from the refreshment and souvenir stand—I do so love popcorn. For a very special treat he would get me the raw kernels, and I would pop them myself inside my own personal furnace.
But, although physically comfortable, I was not happy. What annoyed me most were Saturdays. Saturday was Suleiman’s day off, when I would be put in the charge of an absolute clod who not only couldn’t speak Dragon, but had
