“I am going to the masked ball tonight!” exclaimed the pretty little princess. “If the fairy tales I have grown up on are true, I will find my true love there!” She had always been an optimistic creature, as her mother had taught her to see life through rose-coloured spectacles. Her mother had been beautiful, but poor. She married a rich man who vowed to take care of her through thick and thin. He did so by pampering her for the first year, after which he proceeded in the other direction. She would emerge with bruises, violet, and blue in...