'Oh, why, then,' said the King, 'they thought it wouldn't be any more dangerous or expensive to have a King than a President, and prettier at State shows--ermine, crown, and sceptre, and all that--prettier than frock-coat and spats. So I agreed.' 'And do your people love you?' the Cat asked. 'I don't know,' said the King simply; 'I love them----' As he spoke there came a flutter and flicker of many thousand wings at the closed casement. The Cat threw the window wide, and in swarmed a countless crowd of white pigeons. 'These are the blessings of your people,' said the Cat. The wings fluttered and flickered and fanned the heap of pearl dust on the floor till it burst into flame, and the flame rose up high and white and clear. 'Quick!' cried the Cat, 'walk through it. Lead her through.' The old King gave his hand to his poor faded love, and raised her from her couch, and together they passed through the clear fire made of her patience and self-sacrifice, his high resolve, and the blessings of his people. And they came out of that fire on the other side. 'Oh, love, how beautiful you are!' cried the King. 'Oh, my King, your face is the face of all my dreams!' cried the Princess. And they put their arms round each other and cried for joy, because now they were both young and beautiful again. The Cat cried for sympathy. 'And now we shall live happy ever after,' said the Princess, putting her other arm round the Cat. 'Dear pussy-nurse, do tell me, now it's all over, who you really are.' 'I give it up. Ask another,' said the Cat. But as she spoke she went herself through the fire, and on the other side came out--not one person, but eleven. She was, in fact, the Professor, the nurse, the palace butler, footman, housemaid, parlourmaid, between-maid, boots, scullion, boy in buttons, as well as the rescued cat--all rolled into one! 'But we only used one part of ourselves at a time,' they all said with one voice, 'and I hope we were useful.' 'You were a darling,' said the Princess--'darlings, I mean. But who turned you all into exactly the pussy-nurse I wanted?' 'Oh, that was the Magician,' said all the voices in unison; 'he was your fairy-godfather, you know.' 'What has become of him?' asked the Princess, clinging to her lover's arm. 'He's been asleep all this time. It was the condition, the only way he got leave to work the good magic for all of us,' said the many voices that were one. 'Let's go and wake him,' said the King. So they all went. And when they woke the Magician, who was sleeping quietly in his own private room in the palace where the Princess had once lived, he sneezed seven times for pure joy, and then called for Welsh rabbit and baked Spanish onions for supper. 'For after all these years of starvation,' he said, 'I do really think I may for once take a liberty with my digestion.'