The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-17

Kate Masterson, in Lippincotts Magazine "HE heralds had announced the be-
 throthal through the streets of the
 X kingdom. The naughty Princess Amaranthe was to marry the Prince Bob berino. The bells had rung from the castle tower, and now It was only a few days before the wedding Garlands hung over the great gates, and in score of humble cottages village maidens worked night and day to weave the filmy lace veil that was to drape the cold face of Anna ranthe as she went to the altar to meet the man who had been chosen for her by the parents of the young people.
 One girl, Melange, the village beauty granddaughter of the kings market gar- dener, shed bitter tears over the lace, for she had long worshipped the Prince Bob berino in secret. As he rode to the hunt on his prancing white horse, she had looked from her curtained window with beating heart and flushed cheeks, hoping to catch laughing glance from his dark eyes, for Bobberino was a debonair and gallant prince.
 Then Melange would look in the
 for she knew that she was beautiful, and she had dared to dream dreams Of what might be if she could in some manner draw the princes attention to her golden hair, her violet eyes, her scarlet mouth like rose. and her snowy throat and shoulders. It was folly, of course, but Melange had read tales of princes who had fallen in love with beggar maids and raised them to the throne.
 One of these stories was called "The Path of Roses" and it was so wonderful that the girl read and re-read it. and found in 1t a spell-a charm. She tried to plan some way in which she could make a path over which his feet would stray until they brought to her her hearts desire.
 In this story a beggai girl who loved the king had carried a cluster of pink roses which she meant to throw under his horses feet as he rode through the for est. She hid the flowers beneath her ragged cloak, but when she heard him coming, far off in the woods, she was seized with a fright and ran like deer through the trees
 And as she ran the blossoms were crushed in her arms, and they fell. leaf by leaf, along the grass, leaving traii of rose leaves. The kings fancy was spurred, and with horn and hound he led the way gayly over hill and dell. through rough, thorny bushes and across running brooks, until they found the girl. ex- hausted and weeping, fallen beneath a tree. frightened out of her wits by the chase.
 But the king was so enchanted with her beauty and the odd manner in which he had found her that he placed her on his horse and, walking beside her, led her back to the palace, where he made her his queen.
 Melange resolved on very daring act. She had to bring the lace to the castle in person and deliver it at the chamber Of the Princess Amaranthe. She had no roses. for it was mid-winter, but she stole into the hothouses and gathered several punches of the finest lettuce with hearts of gold, which her grandfather raised for the kings table.
 She broke them carefully apart and hid them under her cape of scarlet before she set out for the castle. Her heart was beating violently, and her long, bur- nished golden hair hung far below her waist. Her little shoes were red and her eyes glowed like stars. She would put her fate to the touch, and If she but caught one glance from the princes eye,