marrow, if a nail is scratched on a pane of glass. I myself have a similar
kind of feeling when I hear any one say thou to me. I feel crushed by it, as I
used to feel in my former position with you. You will perceive that this is a
matter of feeling, not pride. I cannot allow you to say thou to me; I will
gladly say it to you, and therefore your wish will be half fulfilled.” Then the
shadow addressed his former master as thou.
“It is going rather too far,” said the latter, “that I am to say you when I
speak to him, and he is to say thou to me.” However, he was obliged to
submit.
They arrived at length at the baths, where there were many strangers, and
among them a beautiful princess, whose real disease consisted in being too
sharp-sighted, which made every one very uneasy. She saw at once that the
new comer was very different to every one else. “They say he is here to
make his beard grow,” she thought; “but I know the real cause, he is unable
to cast a shadow.” Then she became very curious on the matter, and one
day, while on the promenade, she entered into conversation with the strange
gentleman. Being a princess, she was not obliged to stand upon much
ceremony, so she said to him without hesitation, “Your illness consists in
not being able to cast a shadow.”
“Your royal highness must be on the high road to recovery from your
illness,” said he. “I know your complaint arose from being too sharp-
sighted, and in this case it has entirely failed. I happen to have a most
unusual shadow. Have you not seen a person who is always at my side?
Persons often give their servants finer cloth for their liveries than for their
own clothes, and so I have dressed out my shadow like a man; nay, you may
observe that I have even given him a shadow of his own; it is rather
expensive, but I like to have things about me that are peculiar.”
“How is this?” thought the princess; “am I really cured? This must be the
best watering-place in existence. Water in our times has certainly wonderful
power. But I will not leave this place yet, just as it begins to be amusing.
This foreign prince-for he must be a prince-pleases me above all things. I
only hope his beard won’t grow, or he will leave at once.”
