The Giant stared at him for a full minute. Then he put his hands to his sides and fell back shaking in his chair.
"Her brother!" he roared. "Well, of all the—Her brother!" He rolled on the floor in a paroxysm of mirth. "Her brother! Oh you—You'll kill me! Her b-b-b-b-brother! Her b-b-b-b—her b-b-b—her b-b——"
The world suddenly seemed very cold to Charming. He turned the ring on his finger.
"Well?" said the Dwarf.
"I want," said Charming curtly, "to be back at home, riding through the streets on my cream palfrey, amidst the cheers of the populace.... At once."
An hour later Princess Beauty and Prince Udo, who was not her brother, gazed into each other's eyes; and Beauty's last illusion went.
"You've altered," she said slowly.
"Yes, I'm not really much like a tortoise," said Udo humorously.
"I meant since seven years ago. You're much stouter than I thought."