I seldom stay out after eight—”
“Oh, father!” cried his daughters, nine of them, together, “it would be perfectly jolly!”
“It would suit me to perfection,” said the One-Armed Sorcerer.
“Oh, won’t it be jolly? It will be jolly, won’t it? Wouldn’t it be perfectly jolly?” cried the nine young damsels, clapping their hands.
“Will you come home with me?” I whispered to the fairest of the ten, who had said nothing.
“If you wish it,” she whispered, blushing again.
“Oh, aren’t they just the dearest things?” cried her nine sisters. “It’s love at first sight—oh, the dear things! Aren’t they just simply too dear for anything? They are perfectly dear, now, aren’t they? Really now, aren’t they just too perfectly dear?”
The Prince Leads His Beloved Home
Well, the long and the short of it is, we reached my father’s castle late that night, under a starry sky. The attendants whom I had left in the forest had returned without me, and the castle was a-twitter with anxiety. But when I led my fair lady into the great hall and presented her to my father, the King, and her nine sisters and the elderly Highwayman and the One-Armed Sorcerer stood bowing behind us, there was joy, I can tell you, and the rafters rang again.
My father, after a long look at the beautiful damsel at my side, and then at me, gave a long, slow whistle, without making a sound, and stooped and kissed her on both cheeks, nudging me with his elbow at the same time.