‘If I were a prince,’ said the Princess, ‘I could go out and seek my fortune.’
‘Princesses have fortunes as well as princes,’ said the Bat.
‘But father and mother would never let me go and look for mine.’
‘Think!’ said the Bat, ‘perhaps you’ll find a way.’
So Belinda thought and thought. And at last she got the book that had the portraits of eligible princes in it, and she wrote to the prince who had the christening curse—and this is what she said:
‘Princess Belinda of Carrillon-land is not afraid of christening curses. If Prince Bellamant would like to marry her he had better apply to her Royal Father in the usual way.
‘P.S.—I have seen your portrait.’
When the Prince got this letter he was very [p172 pleased, and wrote at once for Princess Belinda’s likeness. Of course they sent him a picture of her Sunday face, which was the most beautiful face in the world. As soon as he saw it he knew that this was not only the most beautiful face in the world, but the dearest, so he wrote to her father by the next post—applying for her hand in the usual way and enclosing the most respectable references. The King told the Princess.
‘Come,’ said he, ‘what do you say to this young man?’
And the Princess, of course, said, ‘Yes, please.’