To Letty that was the heart-breaking part of the story, the leaving the beloved one to others. It was what she and the little mermaid had in common, unless she too could get rid of her fish’s tail at the cost of 136 walking on blades. But for the little mermaid there the necessity was, as she, Letty read on.
“Before long a young girl came by; she gave a start of terror and ran back to call for assistance. Several people came to her aid, and after a while the little mermaid saw the prince recover his consciousness, and smile upon the group around him. But he had no smile for her; he did not even know that she had saved him. Her heart sank, and when she had seen him carried into the large building, she dived sorrowfully down to her father’s palace.”
Lifting her eyes to meditate on this situation Letty saw Allerton standing between the portières. Her dream of being little mermaid to his prince went out like a pricked bubble. Though he neither smiled nor sneered she knew he was amused at her, with a bitterness in his amusement. In an instant she saw her transformation as it must appear to him. She had spent his money recklessly, and made herself look ridiculous. All the many kinds of shame she had ever known focused on her now, making her a glowing brand of humiliations. She stood helpless. Hans Andersen dropped to the floor with a soft thud. Nevertheless, it was she who spoke first.
“I suppose you—you think it funny to see me rigged up like this?”
He took time to pick up the book she had dropped and hand it back to her. “Won’t you sit down again?”
While she seated herself and he followed her example she continued to stammer on. “I—I thought I ought to—to look proper for the house as long as I was in it.”
Her phrasing gave him an opening. “You’re quite right. I should like you to get whatever would help you in—in your profession before you—before you leave us.”
Quick to seize the implications here she took them with the submission of those whose lots have always depended on other people’s wills.
“I’ll go whenever you want me to.”