“I was unable to bear your marriage to another,” she explained, “especially as you did not seem to be trying to do anything about it.” “But how can a mathlab struggle in the jaws of a woofus?” I interjected, quoting one of Poblath’s proverbs. Lilla smiled indulgently, and continued her story. “There was no one here whom I could trust, so I finally called upon Doggo. He met me on the outskirts of the city, and carried me to Ktuth in his kerkool; then returned to Kuana, to try and devise with you some means of escaping from Bthuh. But his kerkool broke down en route, and he had to continue on foot; and, by the time that he reached the city, you had disappeared. When you failed to show up for the wedding, Bthuh acted like one drunk with saffra-root, and has continued so ever since. Doggo sent word to me at Ktuth, and I returned.” Then I told her _my_ adventures, she sympathizing tenderly with my misfortunes, and thrilling at my conquest of the woofus. “Now that Poblath is our friend again, we have little to fear from Bthuh,” she said. “Bthuh is a mad little wanton, and will cool off if let alone. But Poblath, for all his philosophy, is a commoner, and so was to have been expected to misunderstand the situation.” I wanted to say that Lilla herself had entertained exactly the same misunderstanding as Poblath, but instead I merely remarked, “I too am a commoner, Lilla dearest.” “You are not!” she indignantly replied, “you are a barsarkar, and have the heart of a king. Could the Princess Lilla love a commoner?” “The Princess Lilla once spent a whole night in the arms of a commoner,” I remonstrated. “And was just as safe and free from insult as she would have been in the arms of her mother,” she added. “But Yuri believed otherwise, or said that he did; and threatened that, unless I would by my silence assent to his version of my rescue, he would tell the king, who would have believed the worst and would have cast me out. So, as long as I thought that you were hopelessly doomed, I held my peace. But I was very sad.” After the meal, Lilla and I sat for a long time together on her little balcony, discussing plans. “I shall marry you,” assented my princess, “even if we have to flee together to islands beyond the boiling seas.” That was all very well, but quite impractical. The boiling seas were impassable—unapproachable even. Formia was barred to us by my criminal record, and by the presence and influence there of Yuri. Cupia was barred to us by the wrath of King Kew, due to my treatment of his favorite. And Formia and Cupia constituted the entire world. For us to hide disguised was impossible, because of my own earth-born deformities. So, although I gloried in Lilla’s love, my joy was sobered by a realization that marriage between us was impossible. And what about the situation when King Kew should die, and Prince Yuri should succeed to the crown? We had that to look forward to.