owed low before
the little princess's bed. 'I shall send my servant at once, on the
fastest horse in the stable, to tell your king-papa that Your Royal
Highness desires his presence. When you have chosen one of these
under-servants to wait upon you, I shall order the room to be cleared.'

'Thank you very much, Sir Walter,' said the princess, and her eye
glanced towards a rosy-cheeked girl who had lately come to the house as
a scullery-maid.

But when Lootie saw the eyes of her dear princess going in search of
another instead of her, she fell upon her knees by the bedside, and
burst into a great cry of distress.

'I think, Sir Walter,' said the princess, 'I will keep Lootie. But I
put myself under your care; and you need not trouble my king-papa until
I speak to you again. Will you all please to go away? I am quite safe
and well, and I did not hide myself for the sake either of amusing
myself, or of troubling my people. Lootie, will you please to dress
me.'

CHAPTER 25

Curdie Comes to Grief

Everything was for some time quiet above ground. The king was still
away in a distant part of his dominions. The men-at-arms kept watching
about the house. They had been considerably astonished by finding at
the foot of the rock in the garden the hideous body of the goblin
creature killed by Curdie; but they came to the conclusion that it had
been slain in the mines, and had crept out there to die; and except an
occasional glimpse of a live one they saw nothing to cause alarm.
Curdie kept watching in the mountain, and the goblins kept burrowing
deeper into the earth. As long as they went deeper there was, Curdie
judged, no immediate danger.

To Irene the summer was as full of pleasure as ever, and for a long
time, although she often thought of her grandmother during the day, and
often dreamed about her at night, she did not see her. The kids and
the flowers were as much her delight as ever, and she made as much
friendship with the miners' children she met on the mountain as Lootie
would permit; but Lootie had very foolish notions concerning the
dignity of a princess, not understanding that the truest princess is
just the one who loves all her brothers and sisters best, and who is
most able to do them good by being humble towards them. At the same
time she was considerably altered for the better in her behaviour to
the princess. She could not help seeing that she was no longer a mere
child, but wiser than h