'Yes, the Prince of Crim Tartary,' says Angelica, mocking him.
'I dare say you never heard of such a country. What DID you ever
hear of? You don't know whether Crim Tartary is on the Red Sea
or on the Black Sea, I dare say.'
'Yes, I do, it's on the Red Sea,' says Giglio, at which the
Princess burst out laughing at him, and said, 'Oh, you ninny! You
are so
ignorant, you are really not fit for society! You know
nothing but about horses and dogs, and are only fit to dine in a
mess-room with my Royal father's heaviest dragoons. Don't look
so surprised at me, sir: go and put your best clothes on to
receive the Prince, and let me get the drawing-room ready.'
Giglio said, 'Oh, Angelica, Angelica, I didn't think this of you.
THIS wasn't your language to me when you gave me this ring, and I
gave you mine in the garden, and you gave me that k--'
But what k was we never shall know, for Angelica, in a rage,
cried, 'Get out, you saucy, rude creature! How dare you to
remind me of your rudeness? As for your little trumpery twopenny
ring, there, sir, there!' And she flung it out of the window.
'It was my mother's marriage-ring,' cried Giglio.
'_I_ don't care whose marriage-ring it was,' cries Angelica.
'Marry the person who picks it up if she's a woman; you shan't
marry ME. And give me back MY ring. I've no
patience with
people who boast about the things they give away! _I_ know who'll
give me much finer things than you ever gave me. A beggarly ring
indeed, not worth five shillings!'
Now Angelica little knew that the ring which Giglio had given her
was a fairy ring: if a man wore it, it made all the women in
love with him; if a woman, all the gentlemen. The Queen,
Giglio's mother, quite an ordinary-looking person, was admired
immensely
whilst she wore this ring, and her husband was frantic
when she was ill. But when she called her little Giglio to her,
and put the ring on his finger, King Savio did not seem to care
for his wife so much any more, but transferred all his love to
little Giglio. So did everybody love him as long as he had the
ring; but when, as quite a child, he gave it to Angelica, people
began to love and admire HER; and Giglio, as the
saying is,
played only second fiddle.
'Yes,' says Angelica, going on in her foolish ungrateful way.
'_I_ know who'll give me much finer things than your beggarly
little pearl nonsense.'
'Very good, miss! You may take back your ring too!' says Giglio,
his eyes flashing fire at her, and then, as his eyes had been
suddenly opened, he cried out, 'Ha! what does this mean? Is THIS
the woman I have been in love with all my life? Have I been such
a ninny as to throw away my regard upon you? Why-- actually--
yes--you are a little crooked!'
'Oh, you
wretch!' cries Angelica.
'And, upon my
conscience, you--you squint a little.'
'Eh!' cries Angelica.
'And your hair is red--and you are marked with the smallpox--and
what? you have three false teeth--and one leg shorter than the
other!'
'You brute, you brute, you!' Angelica screamed out: and as she
seized the ring with one hand, she dealt Giglio one, two, three
smacks on the face, and would have pulled the hair off his head
had he not started laughing, and crying--
'Oh dear me, Angelica, don't pull out MY hair, it hurts! You
might remove a great deal of YOUR OWN, as I
perceive, without
scissors or pulling at all. Oh, ho, ho! ha, ha, ha! ho he he!'
And he nearly choked himself with laughing, and she with rage;
when, with a low bow, and dressed in his Court habit, Count
Gambabella, the first lord-in-waiting, entered and said, 'Royal
Highnesses! Their Majesties expect you in the Pink Throne-room,
where they await the
arrival of the Prince of CRIM TARTARY.'
VIII. HOW GRUFFANUFF PICKED THE FAIRY RING UP, AND PRINCE BULBO
CAME TO COURT
Prince Bulbo's
arrival had set all the court in a
flutter:
everybody was ordered to put his or her best clothes on: the
footmen had their gala liveries; the Lord Chancellor his new wig;
the Guards their last new tunics; and Countess Gruffanuff, you
may be sure, was glad of an opportunity of decorating HER old
person with her finest things. She was walking through the court
of the Palace on her way to wait upon Their Majesties, when she
espied something glittering on the
pavement, and bade the boy in
buttons who was
holding up her train, to go and pick up the
article shining yonder. He was an ugly little
wretch, in some of
the late groom-porter's old clothes cut down, and much too tight
for him; and yet, when he had taken up the ring (as it turned out
to be), and was carrying it to his
mistress, she thought he
looked like a little cupid. He gave the ring to her; it was a
trumpery little thing enough, but too small for any of her old
knuckles, so she put it into her pocket.
'Oh, mum!' says the boy, looking at her 'how--how beyoutiful you
do look, mum, today, mum!'
'And you, too, Jacky,' she was going to say; but, looking down at
him--no, he was no longer
good-looking at all--but only the
carroty-haired little Jacky of the morning. However, praise is
welcome from the ugliest of men or boys, and Gruffanuff, bidding
the boy hold up her train, walked on in high good-humour. The
guards saluted her with
peculiar respect. Captain Hedzoff, in
the anteroom, said, 'My dear madam, you look like an angel
today.' And so, bowing and smirking, Gruffanuff went in and took
her place behind her Royal Master and Mistress, who were in the
throne-room, awaiting the Prince of Crim Tartary. Princess
Angelica sat at their feet, and behind the King's chair stood
Prince Giglio, looking very savage.
The Prince of Crim Tartary made his appearance, attended by Baron
Sleibootz, his
chamberlain, and followed by a black page carrying
the most beautiful crown you ever saw! He was dressed in his
travelling
costume, and his hair, as you see, was a little in
disorder. 'I have
ridden three hundred miles since breakfast,'
said he, 'so eager was I to behold the Prin--the Court and august
family of Paflagonia, and I could not wait one minute before
appearing in Your Majesties' presences.'
Giglio, from behind the
throne, burst out into a roar of
contemptuous
laughter; but all the Royal party, in fact, were so
flurried, that they did not hear this little
outbreak. 'Your R.
H. is
welcome in any dress,' says the King. 'Glumboso, a chair
for His Royal Highness.'
'Any dress His Royal Highness wears IS a Court dress,' says
Princess Angelica, smiling graciously.
'Ah! but you should see my other clothes,' said the Prince. 'I
should have had them on, but that
stupidcarrier has not brought
them. Who's that laughing?'
It was Giglio laughing. 'I was laughing,' he said, 'because you
said just now that you were in such a hurry to see the Princess,
that you could not wait to change your dress; and now you say you
come in those clothes because you have no others.'
'And who are you?' says Prince Bulbo, very fiercely.
'My father was King of this country, and I am his only son,
Prince!' replies Giglio, with equal haughtiness.
'Ha!' said the King and Glumboso, looking very flurried; but the
former, collecting himself, said, 'Dear Prince Bulbo, I forgot to
introduce to Your Royal Highness my dear
nephew, His Royal
Highness Prince Giglio! Know each other! Embrace each other!
Giglio, give His Royal Highness your hand!' and Giglio, giving
his hand, squeezed poor Bulbo's until the tears ran out of his
eyes. Glumboso now brought a chair for the Royal
visitor, and
placed it on the
platform on which the King, Queen, and Prince
were seated; but the chair was on the edge of the
platform, and
as Bulbo sat down, it toppled over, and he with it, rolling over
and over, and bellowing like a bull. Giglio roared still louder
at this
disaster, but it was with
laughter; so did all the Court
when Prince Bulbo got up; for though when he entered the room he
appeared not very
ridiculous, as he stood up from his fall for a
moment he looked so
exceedingly plain and foolish, that nobody
could help laughing at him. When he had entered the room, he was
observed to carry a rose in his hand, which fell out of it as he
tumbled.
'My rose! my rose!' cried Bulbo; and his
chamberlain dashed
forwards and picked it up, and gave it to the Prince, who put it
in his
waistcoat. Then people wondered why they had laughed;
there was nothing particularly
ridiculous in him. He was rather
short, rather stout, rather red-haired, but, in fine, for a
Prince, not so bad.
So they sat and talked, the Royal personages together, the Crim
Tartar officers with those of Paflagonia--Giglio very comfortable
with Gruffanuff behind the
throne. He looked at her with such
tender eyes, that her heart was all in a
flutter. 'Oh, dear
Prince,' she said, 'how could you speak so
haughtily in presence
of Their Majesties? I protest I thought I should have fainted.'
'I should have caught you in my arms,' said Giglio, looking
raptures.
'Why were you so cruel to Prince Bulbo, dear Prince?' says Gruff.
'Because I hate him,' says Gil.
'You are
jealous of him, and still love poor Angelica,' cries
Gruffanuff, putting her
handkerchief to her eyes.
'I did, but I love her no more!' Giglio cried. 'I
despise her!
Were she heiress to twenty thousand
thrones, I would
despise her
and scorn her. But why speak of
thrones? I have lost mine. I
am too weak to recover it--I am alone, and have no friend.'
'Oh, say not so, dear Prince!' says Gruffanuff.
'Besides,' says he, 'I am so happy here BEHIND THE THRONE that I
would not change my place, no, not for the
throne of the world!'
'What are you two people chattering about there?' says the Queen,
who was rather
good-natured, though not overburthened with
wisdom. 'It is time to dress for dinner. Giglio, show Prince
Bulbo to his room. Prince, if your clothes have not come, we
shall be very happy to see you as you are.' But when Prince
Bulbo got to his bedroom, his
luggage was there and unpacked; and
the hairdresser coming in, cut and curled him entirely to his own
satisfaction; and when the dinner-bell rang, the Royal company
had not to wait above five-and-twenty minutes until Bulbo
appeared, during which time the King, who could not bear to wait,
grew as sulky as possible. As for Giglio, he never left Madam
Gruffanuff all this time, but stood with her in the embrasure of
a window, paying her compliments. At length the Groom of the
Chambers announced His Royal Highness the Prince of Crim Tartary!
and the noble company went into the royal dining-room. It was
quite a small party; only the King and Queen, the Princess, whom
Bulbo took out, the two Princes, Countess Gruffanuff, Glumboso
the Prime Minister, and Prince Bulbo's
chamberlain. You may be
sure they had a very good dinner--let every boy or girl think of
what he or she likes best, and fancy it on the table.*
*Here a very pretty game may be played by all the children
sayingwhat they like best for dinner.
The Princess talked
incessantly all dinner-time to the Prince of
Crimea, who ate an
immense deal too much, and never took his eyes
off his plate, except when Giglio, who was
carving a goose, sent
a quantity of stuffing and onion sauce into one of them. Giglio
only burst out a-laughing as the Crimean Prince wiped his
shirt-front and face with his scented pocket-
handkerchief. He
did not make Prince Bulbo any
apology. When the Prince looked at
him, Giglio would not look that way. When Prince Bulbo said,
'Prince Giglio, may I have the honour of
taking a glass of wine
with you?' Giglio WOULDN'T answer. All his talk and his eyes
were for Countess Gruffanuff, who you may be sure was pleased
with Giglio's attentions--the vain old creature! When he was not
complimenting her, he was making fun of Prince Bulbo, so loud
that Gruffanuff was always tapping him with her fan, and
saying--'Oh, you satirical Prince! Oh, fie, the Prince will