As soon as she had done this Elsa and Elfrida burst out laughing.
"Fancy giving a beggar a doll!" they said. "We should like to know what he can do with it!"
"Thank you kindly, little Princess," said the vagabond. "I shall never forget your kindness."
"A lot of good a beggar's kindness will do her," said Elsa.
"Perhaps he will bring her a bridegroom," said Elfrida.
"Perhaps he will wed her himself," said Elsa, and they both laughed.
"Nobody else will, for sure," said Elfrida.
The vagabond then turned to the two sisters and said--
"A day will come when you will envy your sister her bridegroom." And he hobbled away.
Elsa and Elfrida burst into a fit of laughter.
"Fancy," said Elsa, "our envying Heartsease!"
"Fancy," said Elfrida, "her ever having a bridegroom!"
Now Heartsease could not understand what they meant, for she did not know she was a fright; but their words made her thoughtful and sad, and she wondered what they were talking about. When she got home, she asked her father whether, when she grew up, she would find a bridegroom, and be married.
"Of course you will, dear little child," he said, and he took her on his knee, but she noticed that his eyes were filled with tears.
From that moment, Heartsease began to suspect that there was something wrong about herself, and that she was not quite the same as other children. One summer night, after she had been put to bed, her nurse and the nurserymaid were sitting by the nursery window darning some stockings. They thought Heartsease was asleep.
"Princess Elsa will be fifteen years old come Michaelmas," said the nurse.
"They'll be looking for a bridegroom for her soon," said the nurserymaid. "She's as tall as a grown-up lass already."
"I pity her husband," said the nurse; "she's a regular cross-patch she is, and as proud as a peacock."
"And as different from the little one as cloth from silk," said the nurserymaid.
"Ah!" sighed the nurse, "poor little lamb! they'll have a hard task to find her a suitor, although she deserves the best in the land."
Heartsease wondered what this could mean, and the more she pondered over it, the sadder she became.
The years passed by, and a great feast was held at Court to celebrate Princess Elsa's seventeenth birthday. All the princes of the land were invited, for the King and the Queen thought that the time had come for Elsa to be married. The three principal suitors were Prince Silvergilt, who possessed immense riches and countless jewels; King Sharpsword, who was a terrible fighter, and had slain two hundred knights in single combat; and Prince Simple Simon, who was the youngest son of a powerful king, and so simple that he was always laughed at by everybody. Besides these there were a number of less important knights and princes. As soon as the Prince Silvergilt set eyes on Princess Elsa, he made up his mind that she would make just the right wife for him, because she was beautiful and haughty, and he was determined that the queen of his country should be the proudest woman in the world, and should always be dressed in gold, and wear a heavy crown.