"Those ideals again!" said the exasperated Fairy. "You'll drive me out of all patience directly! But there--I've said all I could, and if you _will_ be pig-headed, you must. And now I'll ask you to go away, as I'm really not well enough to bear any more conversation." He had not been gone more than ten minutes when there was another knock at her door, and this time it was Princess Edna herself who entered. "So it's _you_, is it?" snapped the Court Godmother, with none of her customary urbanity. And then, recollecting the necessity of keeping up appearances, threw in a belated "my dear." "Well, I hear you are taking time before you put Mirliflor out of suspense, but I presume you've already decided to accept him?" "That's what I came to consult you about, Court Godmother," replied Edna. "I don't feel that I--he is at all a person I could ever be happy with. He is not on the same intellectual plane with me--we should have nothing whatever in common. He seems to have none of the qualities that would make me respect and look up to a man." Relieved though she was, the Fairy still resented any disparagement of her favourite godson from such a quarter. "Hoity-toity!" she exclaimed--an expression which, if it ever was popular, is no longer used by anyone but Fairy Godmothers--and even the Fairy only indulged in it under extreme provocation. "Let me tell you that Mirliflor is not generally regarded as ineligible. But, no doubt, my dear," she added acidly, "you have every right to be fastidious." She was greatly tempted to let her know that Mirliflor would be anything but broken-hearted by a refusal, but prudence warned her that she had better not. "And may I ask what you propose to say to him?" "Oh," said Edna, "I suppose I shall have to tell him to-night that I find I don't like him enough to marry him." "And give everybody to understand that he is personally displeasing to you! Indeed you will not!" said the old Fairy imperiously. "_Other_ persons' feelings have to be considered as well as your own. _Mine_, for one. Mirliflor would never forgive me for exposing him to such humiliation. Nor would his father, King Tournesol, for that matter, and I can't afford to quarrel with either of them. You can't get rid of an unwelcome suitor like that--at all events, not in Maerchenland!" "Can't I?" said Edna. "Then how _am_ I to get rid of him?" "A Princess of high breeding," replied the Fairy, "finds some means of tempering her refusal so as to avoid wounding her suitor's pride; and I may tell you Mirliflor has more than his share of that. The usual method here is to accept him, on condition that he succeeds in answering some question so difficult that it is no disgrace if he fails to answer it." "Do you mean something in the nature of a riddle?" asked Edna. "Well, a riddle will do. Yes, there are precedents for that. A riddle would be quite in accordance with Court etiquette. Ask him a riddle if you like."