“Your will is law, my dear; anything to please you. Just wait a minute!”
Then he ran upstairs, for the last time, to the fairy garret, and he put on the wishing cap.
“No,” thought he to himself, “I won’t wish that. Every man has one secret from his wife, and this shall be mine.”
Then he said aloud: “I wish to SEEM no CLEVERER THAN OTHER PEOPLE.”
Then he ran downstairs again, and the princess noticed a great difference in him (though, of course, there was really none at all), and so did everyone. For the prince remained as clever as ever he had been; but, as nobody observed it, he became the most popular prince, and finally the best-beloved king who had ever sat on the throne of Pantouflia.
But occasionally Rosalind would say, “I do believe, my dear, that you are really as clever as ever!”
And he was!
