It was as if hay had been made of everything he possessed.

What was worse, he had not a penny in his pocket to buy new things; and his father had stopped his allowance of fifty thousand pounds a month.
Can you imagine anything more cruel and _unjust_ than this conduct?
for it was not the prince's fault that he was so clever.

The cruel fairy had made him so.

But, even if the prince had been born clever (as may have happened to you), was he to be blamed for that?
The other people were just as much in fault for being born so stupid; but the world, my dear children, can never be induced to remember this.

If you are clever, you will find it best not to let people know it--if you want them to like you.
Well, here was the prince in a pretty plight.