Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 9, 1895 - Romances Volume II

IN WHICH THE PRINCE
should think you was ashamed of yourself! You 're
bald then, I suppose ? '
'O, no,' said Otto, fairly laughing. 'There I
acquit myself : not bald 1 '
' Well, and good ? ' pursued the girl. ' Come now,
you know you are good, and I '11 make you say so.
. . . Your Highness, I beg your humble pardon.
But there's no disrespect intended. And anyhow,
you know you are.'
' Why, now, what am I to say ? ' replied Otto.
' You are a cook, and excellently well you do it ;
I embrace the chance of thanking you for the ragout.
Well now, have you not seen good food so bedevilled
by unskilful cookery that no one could be brought to
eat the pudding ? That is me, my dear. I am full
of good ingredients, but the dish is worthless. I am
— I give it you in one word — sugar in the salad.'
' Well, I don't care, you 're good,' reiterated
Ottilia, a little flushed by having failed to under-
stand.
' I will tell you one thing,' replied Otto : ' You
are ! '
'Ah, well, that's what they all said of you,'
moralised the girl ; ' such a tongue to come round
— such a flattering tongue ! '
' O, you forget, I am a man of middle age,' the
Prince chuckled.
'Well, to speak to you, I should think you was a
boy ; and Prince or no Prince, if you came worrying
where I was cooking, I would pin a napkin to your
tails. . . . And, O Lord, I declare I hope your High-
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