This order having been obeyed, the young princess sent for a number of workmen and an architect. On her way in search of these, the old woman met a little gray man who had a hump on his back.
"Where are you going, Margaret?" cried the little hunchback.
"I am hunting for workmen and for an architect," she replied.
"I am your man," exclaimed the dwarf.
"Are you capable?" asked the old woman.
"Patience, Margaret! patience!" exclaimed the little gray man. "Of that you will have to judge later."
Mirza accepted the dwarf as her architect, but she could not help saying to him:
"Little gray man, where are your workmen? Do you think to build by yourself the palace I desire?"
Scarcely had she finished speaking, when, at the sound of a low whistle from the little gray man, there appeared on all sides hundreds and thousands of brownies, who were cutting all sorts of antics and capers. Some jumped, some ran, some walked on their hands, and some floated in the air as light as thistle-down. But each of them, when he passed before the little gray man, said: