MIRAMAR 



which he could experiment in the culture 

 of exotic plants. The following year he 

 married Charlotte, the daughter of the 

 Belgian king, and it was clear the villa must 

 be adorned and enlarged to fit it for the royal 

 bride. 



The story sorrowful and romantic thus 

 begins where the fairy-tales wisely end ; with 

 the wedding of a beautiful princess and a 

 charming, devoted and prosperous prince, who 

 gives her wealth, ease, admiration, and a fairy 

 palace to live in " a magic casement opening 

 on the sea " wreathed in flowers, vocal with 

 singing-birds, shaded with terraced cypress and 

 groves of myrtle. 



Within the house were all the charms of 

 books and pictures, trophies from foreign lands, 

 and a continual coming and going, not only of 

 royal relatives but of the best intellectual and 

 literary society. Yet a certain simplicity of 

 taste distinguished the Prince, and a large corner 

 of his heart was reserved for his beloved sea, his 

 ship and his knight-errantry all symbolized 

 for him by his own two rooms in the fairy 

 palace. He had made them exact reproductions 



2 A 185 



