"I pray you tell me," said Prince Hugh, "how you, being a beggar-maid, walk as if possessed of wealth?"
She smiled. "All people are rich. Some know it. Some do not."
The princeling gave a royal whistle, and smiled at his brother Richard, who picked a white carnation and began to pull its petals. "Tell me, maid, why you wear the blue glove?" he asked.
"To cover a hand still my own," she returned proudly.
Merlin said nothing at all. He took the scarlet ball, bowed, and turned from her. She raised her eyes to the heights where the turrets cut the sky, black against gold, and the whirling sea-birds beat down the seaward rushing wind. Then stepping softly, she followed Merlin, who walked on to a place where the arching trees made a green cave, and in the depths of the cave was a fountain of marble sunk into a round of ferns. At the edge the prince paused, then he dropped the ball into the water, and it sank, for it was solid and heavy.
[Illustration: MERLIN DROPS THE BALL INTO THE FOUNTAIN]
"Why did you do that?" cried the Princess.
He wheeled about, and looked upon her coldly. "Why have you followed me?" he asked.
"To pick up the ball, should you drop it."
"The ball is drowned," he said.