To be sure , a fan seems rather an odd possession for a goose girl , but the princess did not think of that , and she forgot all her troubles when , on opening the fan to use it as a parasol , out tumbled a letter from her lover . Then she felt sure that the fairy had not forgotten her , and took heart . When Grimace saw that Minon-Minette still managed to look as white as snow , instead of being burnt as brown as a berry , she wondered what could have happened , and began to watch her closely . The following day , when the sun was at its highest and hottest , she noticed her draw a fan from the folds of her dress and hold it before her eyes . The fairy , in a rage , tried to snatch it from her , but the princess would not let it go . ` Give me that fan at once ! ' cried Grimace . ` Never while I live ! ' answered the princess , and , not knowing where it would be safest , placed it under her feet . In an instant she felt herself rising from the ground , with the fan always beneath her , and while Grimace was too much blinded by her fury to notice what was going on the princess was quickly soaring out of her reach . All this time Souci had been wandering through the world with his precious thread carefully fastened round him , seeking every possible and impossible place where his beloved princess might chance to be . But though he sometimes found traces of her , or even messages scratched on a rock , or cut in the bark of a tree , she herself was nowhere to be found . ` If she is not on the earth , ' said Souci to himself , ` perhaps she is hiding somewhere in the air . It is there that I shall find her . ' So , by the help of his thread , he tried to mount upwards , but he could go such a little way , and hurt himself dreadfully when he tumbled back to earth again . Still he did not give up , and after many days of efforts and tumbles he found to his great joy that he could go a little higher and stay up a little longer than he had done at first , and by-and-bye he was able to live in the air altogether . But alas ! the world of the air seemed as empty of her as the world below , and Souci was beginning to despair , and to think that he must go and search the world that lay in the sea . He was floating sadly along , not paying any heed to where he was going , when he saw in the distance a beautiful , bright sort of bird coming towards him . His heart beat fast -- he did not know why -- and as they both drew near the voice of the princess exclaimed , ` Behold the bird without feathers and the bridge without an arch ! '
So their first meeting took place in the air , but it was none the less happy for that ; and the fan grew big enough to hold the king as well as Aveline , who had hastened XXXXX give them some good advice .
as at beneath from of out than though to while