"'My dear child,' replied the old lady, 'it is a kind of medicine!'
"'Ah!' cried the Princess, 'Then I see why the ladies made faces when I spoke of it. I suppose they had all taken a dose. But it sounds very pleasant,' she added, and all day long she went about with the shell at her ear.
"The next morning the shell was gone, for the ladies had taken it away so that they might prevent further mischief by hiding this wonderful shell. But before they concealed it they listened to hear it say 'I love you.' No one listened twice, and they all said the shell was an ill-bred shell and had no manners, though what it said to them I know not, perhaps something true but not pleasant.
"The next day while walking in the garden the Princess asked eagerly about her singing shell. While everybody pretended to look for it a whirring noise was heard and a fluttering of white wings was seen as the swan lit at the feet of the lady and shook the pearl necklace into her lap.
"'Oh marvellous!' cried the Princess, 'come quickly look at this! see what pearls! and Mahomet preserve us! Bismillah! Here is the name of that medicine again, written in scarlet on the breast of this beautiful swan, 'I love thee.'
"No sooner had the old ladies seen these fatal words than they rushed at the bird and beat it so cruelly that it had hard work to get away even with the help of the Princess herself.
"This time she was so urgent to be told more, and so eager in her questions, that the matter came to the quick ears of the King Omar her father. At once the guards around her Palace gardens were doubled. Twelve old ladies were set to work to gather up all the shells along shore, while twelve more were ordered to keep strict watch lest any other messages of love should come to the fair Jessalie.
"Meantime none knew whence came these strange words, and the King grew more and more angry and alarmed whenever he thought about it.
"All his precautions were in vain. One fine morning every rose-leaf in the gardens had written upon it in golden Arabic letters, 'I love you.'