“But supposing,” said the princess, “that your wife fell downstairs and broke her nose, so that her beauty was spoilt. What then?” “Oh, then of course I shouldn’t be able to make up any more verses about her,” said the prince. “I should get very irritable. How could I bear to look at a wife with a crooked nose? She would certainly have to be most careful not to break her nose.” The princess laughed. “I think you’d better get married to a waxen lady,” she said. “If you kept her in a glass case out of the sun she would remain beautiful for ever, and there would be no fear of her nose getting broken. Thank you very much for coming. I fear that we are not quite suited to one another. Good-day.” The prince bowed low, picked up his bunch of roses, and rode off again through the park with his white feather streaming behind him in the wind. “I’m sorry,” said the princess. “He looked so very nice, and I’m sure he must make lovely songs. But I should always have been afraid of breaking my nose.” And she laughed again and took up her embroidery. Several more suitors came during the day to ask for the hand of the princess, but not one of them gave a satisfactory answer to the question. One of them thought it above all things desirable in a wife that she should be able to make a good pudding; another required that she should talk very little--“which I _certainly_ couldn’t promise,” said the princess; another considered it most important that she should have twelve bags full of gold pieces! They all had to tell the truth when they stood under the branches of the ash-trees, and some of them really had the most curious ideas. At last, just as the sun was going down, there came a prince riding on a chestnut horse and attended only by one squire. He had come a long way, from a far-off country, and he had ridden hard, for he had heard much about the lovely Princess Golden-bright and was afraid that he might be too late. In spite of his dusty and travel-stained appearance the princess was pleased with the look of him, for he was tall and slender and had dark curling hair and pleasant grey eyes, and she hoped very much that he would answer the question satisfactorily. When he came to the top of the little hill and saw the princess he fell on his knee and could find no word to say, she was so much more beautiful than he could ever have imagined. But she smiled kindly at him, and he took courage and told her how for a long time he had wanted to come to see her, and that now he feared he had come too late. The princess asked him many questions, but she hesitated to ask the most important of all, for she liked him better every minute and was afraid he might not give the right answer. The ash-trees rustled and rustled as if a wind were blowing through them, and at last she felt she must wait no longer. “Will you tell me,” she said softly, “what it is that you most desire in a wife?”