The Princess did not like to call on a perfect stranger so very early in the morning, so they decided to wait a little and look about them.
The castle was very beautiful, decorated with a conventional design of bells and bell ropes, carved in white stone.
Luxuriant plants of American bell-vine covered the drawbridge and portcullis. On a green lawn in front of the castle was a well, with a curious bell-shaped covering suspended over it. The lovers leaned over the mossy fern-grown wall of the well, and, looking down, they could see that the narrowness of the well only lasted for a few feet, and below that it spread into a cavern where water lay in a big pool.
‘What cheer?’ said a pleasant voice behind them. It was the Enchanter, an early riser, like Darwin was, and all other great scientific men.
They told him what cheer.
‘But,’ Prince Bellamant ended, ‘it’s really no use. I can’t keep under water more than two minutes however much I try. And my precious Belinda’s not likely to find any silly old bell that doesn’t ring, and can’t ring, and never will ring, and was never made to ring.’
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‘Ho, ho,’ laughed the Enchanter with the soft full laughter of old age. ‘You’ve come to the right shop. Who told you?’
‘The bells,’ said Belinda.
‘Ah, yes.’ The old man frowned kindly upon them. ‘You must be very fond of each other?’
‘We are,’ said the two together.