“But I am handsome,” she cried triumphantly. “As handsome as a queen.”
She spoke so loudly that the Princess heard her, and her laugh rang out like a peal of bells. Looking hastily up, the negress saw her in the branches, and disappointed vanity rendered her almost speechless.… Her mistress was right then, after all, and the lovely vision she had seen in the water was not the reflection of herself. As she stared upward with dilated eyes, there came to her thoughts of revenge.
“I will make her suffer for this,” she murmured, but wreathing her wide lips in a false smile, she bade the Princess “Good-morrow.”
“Why do you hide in a tree, lovely lady?” she asked her gently.
“I am waiting for my Prince, who has gone to fetch me a satin robe, and a rope of pearls to twine round my neck,” answered the Princess shyly.
“Your golden hair has been tossed by the wind,” remarked the negress. “Let me come up beside you, and I will make it smooth. It will not do to look untidy when your Prince arrives!”
“How kind you are!” said the Princess, and as she bent her silken head towards the negress, the treacherous woman stabbed it with a long sharp pin.
The Princess fell back, faint with pain, but before her body could touch the ground she turned into a snow-white pigeon, and flew off uttering plaintive cries.
The negress took her place in the tree, and when at last the Prince appeared, bearing a satin robe and a bridal veil, it was she whom he saw looking down on him.