THE QUEST FOR A WOMAN OF VIRTUE

CAROLYN WELLS

"BUT you have never done anything —really wrong," said the lady-in-waiting, her brows wrinkled with anxious concern.

"No," agreed the Queen, tapping her slipper on the satin foot-cushion, "no; but when I look deep into my own heart I find budding motives there, half-blown impulses, that are not—I cannot deny it—that are not entirely virtuous. When, in my mirror I gaze into my own eyes—I cannot meet them! My eyes fall before what I see in the glass."

The ladies-in-waiting sighed. Here, indeed, was a case where their advice and sympathy counted for naught! Who could minister to a Queen who was so firmly convinced of her own unspeakable unworthiness?

ONE day there arrived at the palace an old traveling magician, a seer. Eagerly the Queen consulted him about her dilemma.

"My daughter," said the hoary, black-robed man, after he had heard her story and learned of her high ambition, "you can achieve this innate and flawless virtue in only one way."

"And that?" cried the Queen, eagerly.

His sharp old eyes fell kindlv on the witching flower-face upturned to his own. Well versed in reading human nature, he discerned her pure sweet spirit and her guileless soul. He sighed and said, "It is a form of magic. Alone, at midnight, by the light of one small taper, you must glance at yourself in the mirror of an absolutely virtuous woman."

"And what is an absolutely virtuous woman," asked the Queen. The magician then confided to her the twelve great hidden tests of virtue and departed, but before he had passed through the door, the Queen was summoning her courtiers and bidding them send heralds and messengers on a quest for. the magical mirror.

"To the ends of the earth," her orders were. "To the limit of the royal exchequer. To the mountain wilds, to the peaceful hamlets, to the convents—anywhere that a truly virtuous woman may be found, and any price to pay for her mirror!" Then the Queen waited. Far and wide was the search. Long and eagerly did her messengers seek for the mirror.

THE search had continued for many moons when there came word that the truly virtuous woman had been found! One messenger had succeeded in his quest, and was even now returning post-haste to the palace. The wind seemed to carry the news. One heard, vaguely, that the soul of this wonderful woman was snow-pure, that no taint of sin could be found in her heart; that she had met the magician's twelve magical tests of virtue.

"I'll buy her mirror," cried the Queen, "though it be set in a golden frame and encrusted with gems! I will purchase it at any price. I will borrow it, if that please her, or, if all else fail, I will steal it; and, as for the messenger who brings it to me, I will reward him beyond all bounds!"

At last the messenger came into the Royal presence. He walked dejectedly and with a sorrowing air.

"You are empty-handed!" she cried, in amazement and despair.

"Ay, your Majesty," said the messenger, "the woman says she neve:: possessed a mirror in her life."

"Alackaday," sighed the Queen, "and what reason did she give for that?"

"She said, your Majesty, that she had always been too confoundedly ugly."