The King was just going to call for them, when suddenly the ten Princesses opened the door of their chamber, and stood before him shining like stars, with all their golden hair running down to their feet. “Now put me to death!” said Lubin; and all the time he kept his eye upon the Princess Royal, who turned flame-coloured with rage. “No, indeed!” cried the King. “Now you must be more than pardoned! You see, my dears,” he said to Lyneth and the Princess Royal, “though you have suffered, your sisters have recovered all that they lost. They are ten to two; and I can’t go back on arithmetic; I am bound to do even more than pardon him for this.” “Indeed and indeed yes!” replied the Princess Lyneth. “He has done ten times more than we thought of asking him!” And she went from one to another of her recovered sisters, kissing their beautiful long hair for pure gladness of heart. But when she came to the Princess Royal, she kissed her many times, and stooped down her face upon her shoulder, and cried over her. “Tell me now,” said the King to Lubin, “for you are a very wonderful fellow, how did it all happen?” Lubin looked at the Princess Royal; after all he could not betray a lady’s secret. “I cannot tell you,” he said; “if I did, there would be a death in the family.” “Well,” said the King, “however you may have done it, I own that you have earned your reward. You have only to choose now with which of my daughters you will become my son-in-law. From this day you shall be known as my heir.” He ranged all the Princesses in line, according to their ages. “Now choose,” said the King, “and choose well!” Lubin went up to the Princess Royal. “I won’t have you!” he said, looking very hard at her; and the Princess Royal dropped her eyes. Then he went on to the next. “Sweet lady,” he said, “I dare not ask one with such beautiful hair as yours to marry me, who am a poor cobbler’s son.” But all the while he had the Princess Lyneth’s hair bound round his heart. He went on from one to another, and of each he kissed the hand, saying that she was too fair to marry him. He came to Lyneth, and knelt down at her feet. “Lyneth,” he said, “will you give the poor cobbler back his shoe?” Lyneth, looking in his eyes, saw all that he meant. “And myself in it,” she said, “for you love me dearly!” She put her arms round his neck, and whispered, “You marry me because I am a fright, and have no hair!” But Lubin said, “I have your hair all wound round my heart, making it warm!” So they were married, and lived together more happily than cobbler and princess ever lived in the world before. And the cobbler dropped mending shoes: only his wife’s shoes he always mended. Very soon Lyneth’s hair grew again, more shining and beautiful than before; but the Princess Royal remained pale, and thin, and was bald to the day of her death. THE MOON FLOWER _TO_ EVA AND KATIE [Illustration] THE MOON-FLOWER