"I request," she exclaimed, "that for reasons well known to herself, to the King, and to myself, the Northern fairy's gift may be the last in order instead of the first." The King started and grew pale. The beautiful, soft-voiced fairy of the South, in her glowing golden draperies, would fain have held back, for her affection for her sterner sister was largely mingled with awe. But the Snow fairy signed to her imperiously to speak. "I bestow upon the Princess Sweet-Heart," she said, half tremblingly, "the gift of great beauty." "And I," said the spirit of the East, who came next, her red robes falling majestically around her, her dark hair lying smoothly in its thick masses on her broad, low forehead, "I give her great powers of intellect and intelligence." "And I," said the Western fairy, with a bright, breezy flutter of her sea-green garments, "health--perfect health and strength of body, as my gift to the pretty child." "And you," said the Queen bitterly, "you, cold-hearted fairy, who have done your best to kill me with misery, who came between my husband and me, making him neglect me as he never would have done but for your influence--what will _you_ give my child? Will you do something to make amends for the suffering you caused? I would rather my pretty baby were dead than that she lived to endure what I have of late endured." "Life and death are not mine to bestow or to withhold," said the Northern spirit calmly, as she drew her white garments more closely round her with a majestic air. "So your rash words, foolish woman, fortunately for you all, cannot touch the child. But something--much--I can do, and I will. She shall not know the suffering you dread for her with so cowardly a fear. She shall be what you choose to fancy _I_ am. And instead of the name you have given her, she shall be known for what she is--Princess Ice-Heart." She turned to go, but the King on one hand, her three sisters on the other, started forward to detain her. "Have pity!" exclaimed the former. "Sister, bethink you," said the latter; the Western fairy adding beseechingly, the tears springing in her blue eyes, which so quickly changed from bright to sad, "Say something to soften this hard fate. Undo it you cannot, I know. Or, at least, allow me to mitigate it if I can." The Snow fairy stopped; in truth, she was far from hard-hearted or remorseless, and already she was beginning to feel half sorry for what she had done. "What would you propose?" she said coldly. The fairy of the West threw back her auburn hair with a gesture of impatience.