They dropped on one knee, kissed the maidens' hands very
prettily, and then led them, blushing and delighted, into the royal
tent.
The king was out, but the queen received the daffodils very
graciously.
"Triplet," she said significantly, and it was the princes' turn to
blush.
Then the young people visited all the beautiful tents, and the
great ballroom where there was to be a ball that night, and the
princes whispered to the maidens that they would dance with no one
else. When they had tasted the cowslip wine from the fountains and
eaten lots of wonderful sweets the daffodils declared they were
quite tired; so the princes put them into hammocks with little
monkeys to swing them, and the happy hours wore on until the
evening.
The maidens had had a beautiful tent assigned to them by the queen,
and they found lovely dresses of cloth of gold with shoes and
stockings to match, all ready for them. They looked so beautiful
when they were dressed that the colour of their feet did not seem
to matter at all.
All that night they danced with the princes, and everyone was
charmed with their beauty and grace, especially the king, who had
not received a single answer to his advertisement. At the great
banquet which followed the ball the betrothal of the Silver princes
to the Golden princesses was solemnly announced, and their health
drunk amid great rejoicing.
The dawn was red in the east before the festivities were over, and
the daffodils went to bed happier than they had ever been before,
happier than they ever would be again.
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