"The Prince was lost in wonder, but without hesitation he traced a few rapid letters on the white breast of the swan. As he wrote, the feathers where he touched them grew scarlet, so that you might read in red letters 'I love thee,' marked on the snowy whiteness of the swan's bosom.
"Scarcely had he made an end of this short letter of love when the swan rose in swift flight until she was no longer to be seen by the amazed Prince, who turned to look at the mermaid, though only to find that she too had vanished. Then in still greater wonder Ali walked homeward along the water's edge.
"Thus many days went by and brought no change, for ever the west winds blew, and ever the waves climbed the shore and laid soft cheeks on the sands and whispered, and went backward moaning again.
"This sadness pleased the Prince who lay on the rocks all day and heard the sobbing waters, and looked wearily over the wide green ocean fields where the bubble-crested foam came and went from sight like the white clover blossoms which swayed amid their fields of green, when the wind leaped across the rocks and took its pleasure inland.
"One of these days the Princess walked on the shore with her women, when the youngest of them said, 'What a lovely shell!' 'Let me hear what it says,' cried the Princess; but no sooner had she put it to her ear than the shell murmured softly, 'I love you.'
"'Ah!' said the Princess Jessalie to the oldest of her ladies, 'This shell sings to me words new and strange. Tell me I pray you what is love?'
"She had scarcely finished when all the old ladies held up their hands in horror, for this and all other such words were forbidden within the Palace bounds. The more they made faces and signs at her the more the Princess wished to know. So she kept saying continually, 'What is love? I will know what is love.'
"But no one answered, and some of the old ladies cried, and some ran away, for they all feared that King Omar would strangle them because the Princess had heard the forbidden word, and because no one of them knew but that presently she would say, 'what is a man?' or some other such dreadful words.
"When at length the Princess found herself alone with her governess, she said again, 'What is love?'