"Then," said Lady Whimsical, looking extremely solemn, "to begin with, I am not a Princess at all."
"As if I did n't know that!" laughed the King. "The dragon told me, ever so long ago!"
"He did n't tell you the rest, so stop laughing and listen to me," said Lady Whimsical, with severity. "I knew all the while who you were and what you wanted, and I pretended to be under a spell just to tease you."
"I know that, too," said the King, triumphantly. "The Wise Woman of the Wood told me."
"Did she tell you that I came and hid myself here on purpose, because I heard you were looking for a Princess and I wanted you to find me?" asked the Lady Whimsical, softly.
"Nobody told me that," answered King Grumbelo; "I guessed it for myself."
"What will the Professor of Practical Jokes say, when you come home without the Princess you went out to find?" she asked mischievously.
The King had no time to answer, for at that moment the Professor of Practical Jokes—whose profession always required him to arrive unexpectedly in places where he was not wanted—appeared at the apple-blossom gates and answered Lady Whimsical's question himself.
"There is nothing to say," he observed. "There never was a Princess for your Majesty to find, so of course your Majesty has n't found her."
"There never was anybody for you to find except me," added Lady Whimsical, who was nodding at the Professor as though she had known him all her life. "The other Princess was a practical joke, don't you see. Do you mean to say my dragon did not tell you that, too?"