“‘Now, don’t you put nonsense into their heads,’ said Cassiopeia to Cepheus. ‘He’s just coming to be friendly, and because he can; and I think it’s lovely. We are going to do everything possible to give him a fine welcome; and the girls will look just as pretty as they can, to be a credit to us all.’ “‘I wish Merope’s star were brighter,’ said Celeno. ‘Do you think there is anything we could do about it?’ “There was one thing they could do: they could talk! And they began that very minute. It seems hardly possible that people could talk so much about so little! No one had thought before that Merope was not quite as she should be. If her star was faint and vanished when one looked hard at it, that was the way of Merope’s star, and that was all there was about it. “But now, with the thought of stranger eyes, they began to feel that perhaps it was extraordinary that she should be different from her sisters. And the more they thought and talked about it, the more important it seemed to be. “Every one had some suggestion to make, except poor Merope herself; she never had given it a thought, and now she declared she didn’t care. “‘But _we_ care,’ said Maia. ‘It isn’t creditable to our family. What will the Stranger think, to see you different from us?’ “So they talked—and talked—” “Why didn’t they give her a star?—like Little Bear?” asked the Kitten. “They would have given it, gladly, but Merope wouldn’t take it; and, what is more, none of them had a star of the right kind to give.” “They’re terribly particular about them, aren’t they?” said Phyllisy. “They have to be,” answered the Princess. “But not in the way they were now. Those foolish people went on talking, and fixed their eyes and their thoughts on the star until they quite lost their senses, and it seemed the most calamitous thing that could happen—that the splendid Stranger should come from the Far-Away Isles and see Merope with the puzzling star above her forehead. “One night, at this time, Perseus came along by the river, and there he found Merope sitting alone. She was thinking so deeply she didn’t see him until he was close beside her. [Illustration: HE FOUND MEROPE SITTING ALONE ] “‘Where are the rest of you?’ he asked. “‘Dancing somewhere; I don’t know where. I came here to think.’ “That sounded pretty sad to Perseus, and he tried to say something to cheer her. “‘I wouldn’t worry about that star. You look all right.’ “‘I wouldn’t mind for myself,’ said Merope; ‘but I’m not going to disgrace my family.’ “It was not long after this that the six Pleiades began to say: ‘Where is Merope?’ and then the other Star People said: ‘Where can Merope be?’—until the whole Sky seemed one great Question; and the nearest it came to an answer was that Perseus had seen her sitting on the bank of the river, quite downcast, but plainly resolved to do something. “Cassiopeia was so worried, she lost her temper.