“But I don’t know it,” said the Prince. “Do tell me what it is?”
“Never,” said the Princess; “you must never seek to know it.”
“Why not?” said the Prince.
“Something dreadful will happen,” said the Princess, “if ever you find out my name, and call me by it.”
And she looked quite as if she could be very angry.
Now ever after this, the Prince kept wondering what his wife’s real name could be, till he made himself quite unhappy.
“Is it Margaret?” he would say, when he thought the Princess was off her guard; or, “is it Joan?” “Is it Dorothy?” “It can’t be Sybil, can it?”
But she would never tell him.