"That you will give us the opportunity," said golden-haired Amelie, shivering,—
"To study," said Virginie, who had brown eyes,—
"And grow wise," said Sidonie, whose eyes were blue,—
"And so we ask," said Dorothée, who had gray eyes,—
"That we may enter the university," said little Clementine, who had dimples.
It was sad for the youngest to say the hardest part of all, yet perhaps it was only fair, as it was the strong will of Clementine that had led them there, and the courage of Clementine that had kept them from faltering by the way.
They were simply repeating what they had just said; the parts had been arranged before coming, in hope that his Majesty could not resist. Never in their worst forebodings, when they had talked it over as they braided one another's hair in the tiring-room of the castle, had they dreamed of anything so terrible as this.
"Wh-what put this idea into your heads?" thundered his Majesty.
Then the seven answered as one maiden: "The Princess Pourquoi."
The King groaned aloud, and the knights-at-arms and the ladies-in-waiting groaned with him. Was it not enough for him to have had a daughter whose useless thinking had embittered his reign? She, with her quick intellect and ready questions, had made his throne totter under him; and now, when she was safely married and away—ay, and had made as good a match as the dullest maid in Christendom, must the spirit of inquiry come back to him in seven shapes? Since she was gone, all had been peace; he had been able to sleep most of the other half of the day also. His Majesty fidgeted under his purple robe. The Church had taught him that it was right for the sins of the fathers to be visited upon the children, but nothing about the sins of the children being visited upon the fathers, and he could not understand.