“They were made in the night,” said Ivan quietly, “but it is possible that you do not remember. Do you really find yourself unable to recall having cut and sewed them. Do try to remember—think it over very hard.”
“Oh, brother,” said the bewildered shoemaker, “it must have been working over these brilliant gems that has dazed my wits. I barely remember, but only very barely. But I must make haste to carry them to Elena the Beautiful. Thank goodness we have been able to execute her exalted order.”
“And that you have been saved from occupying a still more exalted position,” said Ivan, who being a prince had a great sense of humour.
“Yes, indeed,” said the shoemaker as he left the house at great speed. Before Ivan could say Elena, which, by the way, he was continually saying to himself, the jolly shoemaker was standing in the apartment of the Golden Tsaritza where the preparations for the wedding seemed to be as busy as ever.
Elena the Beautiful looked at the shoes, and something to which she dared not give a name told her heart what had taken place. “Surely,” she said to herself, very very softly, “the good Spirits made these for Ivan.” Then aloud she said to the grinning shoemaker, “How did you make these?”
“Oh,” said the man, “I am able to do everything.”
The reply of the Tsaritza came quickly upon this boast. “If you can do everything, make me a wedding robe embroidered with gold and ornamented with diamonds and precious stones, which will fit my body as exactly as these shoes fit my feet. Let it be ready by to-morrow morning, for, if it is not, off goes your head.”
The face of the shoemaker fell, and he went out into the street and walked a long, long way thinking very hard. “Well, well,” he said at last, “it is of no use mourning. To-day will be my last day, that is quite certain, and I may as well spend it in jollification. For though a shoemaker may by great industry make a wonderful pair of shoes, he cannot make a wonderful wedding robe for a beautiful Tsaritza without measurements, to say nothing of trying on.” Then he went off to the inn, where he found his companions, who seemed to live there.
‘“Oh,” said the man, “I am able to do everything.”’