and who cannot tell you so without trembling." "A king who adores me," replied the Princess. "Has that king eyes, or is he blind? Can he know that I am the ugliest person in the world." "I have seen you, Madam," answered the invisible being, "and have not found you what you represent yourself. Be it for your person, your merit, or your misfortunes, I repeat, I adore you; but my respectful and timid affection obliges me to conceal myself." "I am indebted to you for so doing," rejoined the Princess; "for alas, what would be my fate should I love any one?" "You would make the happiness of him who cannot live without you," said the voice, "but he will not venture to appear before you without your permission." "No, no," said the Princess; "I would avoid seeing any object that might too powerfully interest me." The voice was silent, and the Princess remained all the rest of the night in deep meditation on this adventure.
However she might have resolved not to say the least word to any one respecting it, she could not resist asking the pagods if their king had returned. They answered in the negative. This reply, so ill-agreeing with what she had heard, disturbed her. She continued her inquiries as to whether their king was young and handsome. They told her he was young, handsome, and very amiable. She asked if they frequently received intelligence of him. They replied, "Every day." "But," added she, "does he know that I am in his palace?" "Yes, Madam," answered her attendants, "he knows everything that occurs here concerning you: he takes great interest in it, and every hour a courier is sent off to him with an account of you." She was silent, and became much more thoughtful than she had formerly been. Whenever she was alone, the voice spoke to her. Sometimes she was alarmed at it: but at others, she felt pleased; for nothing could be more polite than its language to her. "Although," said the Princess, "I have resolved never to love, and have every reason to defend my heart against an attachment which could only be fatal to it, I nevertheless confess to you that I should much like to behold a king who has so strange a taste; for if it be true that you love me, you are perhaps the only being in the world who could be guilty of a similar weakness for a person so ugly as I am." "Think of me whatever you please, adorable Princess," replied the voice. "I find in your merit
