_ That is so, they laying the blame upon
myself. There was the uncle of the King of
Leinster; he never sent me another car-load of
asparagus from the time you banished him away.

_Princess:_ He was a widower man.

_King:_ As to the heir of Orkney, since the time
you sent him to the right about, I never got so
much as a conger eel from his hand.

_Princess:_ As dull as a fish he was. He had a
fish's eyes.

_King:_ That wasn't so with the champion of
the merings of Ulster.

_Princess:_ A freckled man. He had hair the
colour of a fox.

_King:_ I wish he didn't stop sending me his
tribute of heather beer.

_Queen:_ It is a poor daughter that will not
wish to be helpful to her father.

_Princess:_ If I am to wed for the furnishing
of my father's table, it's as good for you to wrap
me in a speckled fawnskin and roast me!

_(Runs out, tossing her ball_.)

_Queen:_ She is no way fit for marriage unless
with a herd to the birds of the air, till she has a
couple of years schooling.

_King:_ It would be hard to put her back to
that.

_Queen:_ I must take it in hand. She is getting
entirely too much of her own way.

_Nurse:_ Leave her alone, and in the end it will
be a good way.

_Queen:_ To keep rules and hours she must learn,
and to give in to order and good sense. _(To King.)_
There is a pigeon messenger I brought from Alban
I am about to let loose on this day with news of
myself and of yourself. I will send with it a message
to a friend I have, bidding her to make ready for
Nuala a place in her garden of learning and her
school.

_King:_ That is going too fast. There is no
hurry.

_Queen:_ She is seventeen years. There is no
day to be lost. I will go write the letter.

_Nurse:_ Oh, you wouldn't send away the poor
child!

_Dall Glic:_ It would be a great hardship to
send her so far. Our poor little Princess Nu!

_Queen: (Sharply.)_ What are saying? _(Dall
Glic is silent.)_

_King:_ I would not wish her to be sent out
of this.

_Queen:_ There is no other way to set her mind
to sense and learning. It will be for her own
good.

_Nurse:_ Where's the use troubling her with
lessons and with books that maybe she will never
be in need of at all. Speak up for her, King.

_King:_ Let her stop for this year as she is.

_Queen:_ You are all too soft and too easy. She
will turn on you and will blame you for it, and
another year or two years slipped by.

_Nurse:_ That she may!

_Dall Glic:_ W