For years he had been fitting up a wonderful cave, hoping some day to induce a lovely maiden to accept and marry him. But he was so ugly and repulsive that all the Earth maidens shunned him. Still he had gone on decorating the cave, determined to steal a wife if necessary. He had gone to the Earth festival with the intention of finding a wife there, but when his eyes fell on the Princess Ethelda he forgot all the other maidens. He thought her gloriously beautiful, and determined to steal her, although she was already married. Therefore, he made up his mind that the Moon Princess should love him and forget her husband. On that account he tried to be kind. Every morning he sent her a beautiful gift, and then soon after paid her a visit and asked her to marry him. Each day her reply was the same,—that she loved her husband and hated him, but if he would restore her to her husband, and show her her home in the starry skies, she would forgive his stealing her. At these words the dwarf would go into a great rage and leave the room, but every day he would return, hoping she had changed her mind. At last he conceived a great idea by which he thought he could win her. Day and night he worked over it, and one morning, when it was completed, he invited her in to see a room he had fitted especially for her to occupy. He thought she would be so pleased at what he had done for her that she could no longer refuse him. When he opened the door and bade her enter, she was amazed and delighted in spite of herself. Round and beautiful in shape was the room. Great stalactites and stalagmites hung from the ceiling and grew from the floors,—all a mass of shining light, for they were of purest white crystal, and shone like the sun. The room was richly furnished, and every comfort seemed there; but all of this was not what she saw to admire. It was a darker room beyond that absorbed and enchanted her. Her eyes beheld what she thought at first was her own beautiful home again. Quickly she passed into it. Blue as the heavens she had left was the lofty ceiling she gazed into. She stared with fresh wonder at the bejewelled stars, and with beating heart watched their brilliant rays. She expected every moment to see the Moon sail past in silver glory. But the radiant splendor of her mother’s Moon palace was absent, and then Ethelda recognized with a great pang that it was not really the sky she saw at all. The countless clusters of stars overheard had been gathered only with untold labor. The dwarf had stationed his numerous slaves to watch the heavens all the night, and when a shooting star fell they seized and brought it straight to him. Gradually, therefore, toiling and working in this way, they built the famous Star Chamber in the great black cave for the Moon Princess. Ethelda’s disappointment was very keen when she learned the truth. Still she loved the Star Chamber better than any other spot in her prison, and she visited it often.