Page:The Enchanted Knights; or The Chronicle of the Three Sisters.djvu/57

Rh of a husband?” retorted he. The handsome Bertha was quite inexperienced in that art (it may be excused as she lived under the water)—she thought and pondered, and at last remembered, fortunately, the wood cellar where she might conceal her brother. He at once agreed, and entrenched himself as well in the transparent room as the beaver in its subterranean hole. The lady then hastened to her toilet, attired herself to the best advantage, in a dress which set off all the beauties of her fine proportions, and went into the audience room to await her husband’s return; there she stood as lovely as one of the three graces in the imagination of a poet. Ufo, the dolphin, could not otherwise enjoy the company of his spouse during the epoch of his enchantment than by every day paying her a visit, looking through the vitreous house, and rejoicing in the sight of her beauty.

Bertha had scarcely entered her parlour before the enormous fish came forcibly cleaving the wave, while yet at a distance the water began to boil and foam and the flood to whirl around the crystal palace. The monster remained before the apartment, gulping streams of water, and rejecting them from his spacious throat, glaring at the handsome lady with his fascinating eyes. Though the young lady endea-