The Rose and the Ring

their last new tunics; and Countess Gruffanuff, you may be sure, was glad of an opportunity of decorating HER old person with her finest things. She was walking through the court of the Palace on

had taken up the ring (as it turned out to be), and was carrying it to his mistress, she thought he looked like a little cupid. He g

ng at her “how — how beyoutifu

anuff, bidding the boy hold up her train, walked on in high good-humor. The Guards saluted her with peculiar respect. Captain Hedzoff, in the anteroom, said, “My dear madam, you look like an angel today.” And so, bowing and smirking, Gruffan

ver saw! He was dressed in his travelling costume, and his hair, as you see, was a little in disorder. “I have ridden three hundred miles since breakfast,” said h

Royal party, in fact, were so flurried, that they did not hear this little outbreak. “Your

ars IS a Court-dress,” says Prin

Prince. “I should have had them on, but that stupi

t you were in such a hurry to see the Princess, that you could not wait to change

” says Prince Bul

and I am his only son, Prince!” rep

an out of his eyes. Glumboso now brought a chair for the Royal visitor, and placed it on the platform on which the King, Queen, and Prince were seated; but the chair was on the edge of the platform, and as Bulbo sat down, it toppled over, and he with it, rolling over and over, and bellowing like a bull. Giglio roared still louder at this disaster, but it was wi

nce, who put it in his waistcoat. Then people wondered why they had laughed; there was nothing particularly r

ble with Gruffanuff behind the throne. He looked at her with such tender eyes, that her heart was all in a flutter. “Oh, dear P

ou in my arms,” said Gi

l to Prince Bulbo, de

hate him,

ve poor Angelica,” cries Gruffanuff,

twenty thousand thrones, I would despise her and scorn her. But why speak of throne

, dear Prince!”

IND THE THRONE, that I would not change my

m entirely to his own satisfaction; and when the dinner-bell rang, the Royal company had not to wait above five-and-twenty minutes until Bulbo appeared, during which time the King, who could not bear to wait, grew as sulky as possible. As for Giglio, he never left Madam Gruffanuff all this time, but stood with her in the embrasure of a window, paying her compliments. At length the Groom of the Chambers announced Hi

played by all the children sayi

ince looked at him, Giglio would not look that way. When Prince Bulbo said, “Prince Giglio, may I have the honor of taking a glass of wine with you?” Giglio WOULDN’T answer. All his talk and his eyes were for Countess Gruffanuff, who you may be sure was pleased with Giglio’s attentions — the vain old creature! When he was not complimenting her, he was making fun of Prince Bulbo, so loud that Gruffanuff was always tapping him w

all of which Master Bulbo drank without stint. But in plying his guest, Giglio was obliged to drink himself, and, I am sorry to say, took more than was good for him, so tha

d talked absurdly, and fell asleep and snored horridly. Booh, the nasty pig! But as he lay there stretched on the pink satin sofa, Angelica still persisted in thinking him the most b

ore lovely. He paid the most outrageous compliments to her:— There never was such a darlin

pon it, “This is to give notice that I, Giglio, only son of Savio, King of Paflagonia, hereby promise to marry

ing Gruffy?” says Giglio, who was loll

nd blankets to the poor, this cold weather. Look! the King and

now she was the wife of the RIGHTFUL King of Paflagonia! She would not speak to Glumboso, whom she thought a brute, for depriving her DEAR HUSBAND of the crown! And when candles came, and she had helped to undress the Queen and Princess,

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