t seemed a long
time--not from weariness but from pleasure. But at last she felt the
beautiful hands lay hold of her, and through the gurgling water she was
lifted out into the lovely room. The lady carried her to the fire, and
sat down with her in her lap, and dried her tenderly with the softest
towel. It was so different from Lootie's drying. When the lady had
done, she stooped to the fire, and drew from it her night-gown, as
white as snow.

'How delicious!' exclaimed the princess. 'It smells of all the roses
in the world, I think.'

When she stood up on the floor she felt as if she had been made over
again. Every bruise and all weariness were gone, and her hands were
soft and whole as ever.

'Now I am going to put you to bed for a good sleep,' said her
grandmother.

'But what will Lootie be thinking? And what am I to say to her when
she asks me where I have been?'

'Don't trouble yourself about it. You will find it all come right,'
said her grandmother, and laid her into the blue bed, under the rosy
counterpane.

'There is just one thing more,' said Irene. 'I am a little anxious
about Curdie. As I brought him into the house, I ought to have seen
him safe on his way home.'

'I took care of all that,' answered the lady. 'I told you to let him
go, and therefore I was bound to look after him. Nobody saw him, and
he is now eating a good dinner in his mother's cottage far up in the
mountain.'

'Then I will go to sleep,' said Irene, and in a few minutes she was
fast asleep.

CHAPTER 23

Curdie and His Mother

Curdie went up the mountain neither whistling nor singing, for he was
vexed with Irene for taking him in, as he called it; and he was vexed
with himself for having spoken to her so angrily. His mother gave a
cry of joy when she saw him, and at once set about getting him
something to eat, asking him questions all the time, which he did not
answer so cheerfully as usual. When his meal was ready, she left him
to eat it, and hurried to the mine to let his father know he was safe.
When she came back, she found him fast asleep upon her bed; nor did he
wake until his father came home in the evening.

'Now, Curdie,' his mother said, as they sat at supper, 'tell us the
whole story from beginning to end, just as it all happened.'

Curdie obeyed, and told everything to the point where they came out
upon the lawn in the garden of the king's house.

'And what happened after that?' asked his mot