Instead of the beautiful Princess of his dreams the King saw a white, withered woman whose piteous eyes met his in a look of longing love. The Princess saw a bent, white-haired man, but love was in his eyes. '_I_ don't mind.' '_I_ don't mind.' They both spoke together. And both thought they spoke the truth. But the truth was that both were horribly disappointed. 'Yet, all the same,' said the King to himself, 'old and withered as she is, she is more to me than the youngest and loveliest of all other Princesses.' 'I don't care if he _is_ gray,' said the Princess to herself; 'whatever he is, he's the only possible one.' 'Here's a pretty kettle of fish!' said the Cat. 'Why on earth didn't you come before?' 'I came as soon as I could,' said the King. The Cat, walking about the room in an agitated way, kicked against the wallet the King had dropped. 'What's this,' she said crossly, rubbing her toes, for the wallet was hard, and she had hurt herself more than a little. 'Oh, that,' said the King--'that's just the steel bolts and hammers and things that my resolves to find the Princess turned into when I failed and never did find her. I never could bear to throw them away; I had a sort of feeling that they might be good for something, since they hurt me so much when they came to me. I thought perhaps I could batter down the doors of the Princess's tower with them.' 'They're good for something better than that,' said the Cat joyously. She went away, and the two heard her hammering away below. Presently she staggered in with a great basket of white powder, and emptied it on the floor; then she went away for more. The King helped her with the next basketful, and the next, and the next, and the next, and the next, and the next, for there were seven of them, and the heap of white powder stood up in the room as high as the King's middle. 'That's powder of pearls,' said the Cat proudly. 'Now, tell me, have you been a good King?' 'I have tried to be,' said the white-haired King 'I was a workhouse boy, and then I was apprenticed to a magician, who taught me how to make people happy. There was a revolution just at the time when I was put into the workhouse, and they had a Republic. And I worked my way up till they made me President.' 'What became of the King in that revolution?' 'There wasn't a King, only a Regent. They had him taught a trade, and he worked for his living. It was the worst punishment they could invent for him. There was a Princess, too, but she was hidden by a magician. I saw her once when she was trying to run away. She asked me to run too--to her nurse----' Here his eyes met the Princess's. 'Oh,' she said, 'that was you, was it?' 'Oh,' said he, 'then that was you!' And they looked long and lovingly in each other's faded eyes. 'Hurry up,' said the Cat impatiently; 'you were made President. And then----'