began to wail, and tears came into her eyes. Then her nurse knelt before
her, and saw in those tears her own wedding. So happy was she over this
sight that she jumped up and began to caper about, heeding not the sobs
of the poor little Princess.

But King Theophile heard them and came out with a face of thunder.
"Woman," he cried, "why do you dance when a princess weeps?"

Then the nurse came to her senses and grew gray with fear. She tried to
mutter some excuse, but King Theophile dismissed her on the spot and
gathering up his baby into his arms, took her into the nursery, and wiped
away her tears. Yet her sobs did not cease and she was too little to tell
him of her woe.

The nurse, though she left the King's service, did marry immediately; and
began to whisper how she had seen her wedding in the tears of the
Princess Elene, which word was to work out cruelly for the royal child.
From that day on those about her, though they loved her dearly, could not
refrain from trying their fortune in her tears. As she grew older and
more understanding it was a difficult matter to know how to make her cry
without incurring suspicion.

But even a wrong will finds its way, and little Elene grew up wondering
why people were so unkind to her; and why there was so much sadness in
the world, for when all else failed the minstrels could make her weep by
singing of "old, unhappy far-off things, and battles long-ago."

King Theophile did not know of these troubles of his little daughter, for
she had learned early that her tears hurt him, so she concealed them from
him. All his joy was now in her, for she was the very image of her dead