‘A mere trifle,’ said the apprentice modestly. ‘I’ve got Taykin’s magic recipe book, as well as his heart.’
‘Well, we must make the best of it, I [p279 suppose,’ said the King crossly. ‘Bless you, my children.’
He was less cross when it was explained to him that the apprentice was really the Prince of the Fortunate Islands, and a much better match than the Prince of the Diamond Mountains, and he was quite in a good temper by the time the nurse threw herself in front of the throne and begged the King to let the Magician off altogether—chiefly on the ground that when he was a baby he was the dearest little duck that ever was, in the prettiest plaid frock, with the loveliest fat legs.
The King, moved by these arguments, said:
‘I’ll spare him if he’ll promise to be good.’
‘You will, ducky, won’t you?’ said the nurse, crying.
‘No,’ said the Magician, ‘I won’t; and what’s more, I can’t.’
The Princess, who was now so happy that she wanted every one else to be happy too, begged her lover to make Taykin good ‘by magic.’
‘Alas, my dearest Lady,’ said the Prince, ‘no one can be made good by magic. I could take the badness out of him—there’s an excellent recipe in this note-book—but if I did that there’d be so very little left.’