Silence Isn't Always Golden

[marval]

Once upon a time there was a Prince who, through no fault of his own was
cast under a spell by an evil witch. The curse was that the Prince could
speak only one word each year.

However, he could save up the words so that if he did not speak for a whole year, then the following year he was allowed to speak two words. (This was before the time of letter writing or sign language.)

One day he met a beautiful princess (ruby lips, golden hair, sapphire
eyes,) and fell madly in love. With the greatest difficulty he decided
to refrain from speaking for two whole years so that he could look at
her and say "my darling".

But at the end of the two years he wished to tell her that he loved her. Because of this he waited three more years without speaking (bringing the total number of silent years to 5).

But at the end of these five years he realized that he had to ask her to
marry him. So he waited another four years without speaking.

Finally as the ninth year of silence ended, his joy knew no bounds.
Leading the lovely princess to the most secluded and romantic place in
that beautiful royal garden the prince heaped a hundred red roses on her
lap, knelt before her, and taking her hand in his, said huskily, "My
darling, I love you! Will you marry me?"

And the princess tucked a strand of golden hair behind a dainty ear,
opened her sapphire eyes in wonder, and parting her ruby lips, said:
"Pardon?"

[wildwood]

At this rate they'll be too old to do the boogeywoogey by the time they are married. Mwahahaha!

[starone]

Aaaaahhhh!

[joggerjayne]

If she was a princess, she should have said "What?"

Only the affected, socially anxious middles say "Pardon?" (unless you've done something for which you wish to be pardoned ... like farted).

[sandyRoe]

I cock an ear and say 'sorry?' Am I U or non U, I wonder?

[DrFilth]

if the princess farted the proper etiquette would be for the prince to pretend it was his and say sorry

[sandyRoe]

No. The prince would turn to the butler and say: 'Would you stop that?'

[sandyRoe]

And the butler might reply: 'Certainly, your highness, which way did it go?'

[DrFilth]

i find it hard to believe that a fit princess would drop a humdinger in front of a prince

[starone]

sandy - that was another joke. Mwahahaha!

[joggerjayne]

Surely princesses don't actually fart.

I bet Kat doesn't fart.

[sandyRoe]

I believe Anne can sound like a small tuba after a feed of Guinness and pigs trotters.

[joggerjayne]

Anne is a good earthy sort of girl.