_very_
big; and there was to be an elephant and castle, made of sugar, all
over gilding, at the top. But, somehow, when the princess sat down to
her luncheon, she did not look happy, notwithstanding her birth-day,
and her three cousins, and the great plum-pudding they were going to
have.

'May it please your royal highness,' said the tall page,
Grandmagnificolowsky, 'shall I put the cats' meat in the hall for
them, as the snow is so deep in the garden, to-day?'

'No, no, nonsense!' replied the princess, who had just helped herself
to the breast of a partridge, 'put it in the old place in the garden;
and here--put this wing and leg upon the dish too.'

Did not Glumdalkin's eyes sparkle when she got to the dish, and found
the wing of the partridge; how she devoured it! She was really so
busy, that she actually was some minutes before she discovered that
Friskarina had gently drawn away a mutton bone, with some beautiful
picking upon it, to a spot at a little distance among the trees, and
that she had then come quietly back, and was making her own dinner
upon the drumstick of a chicken, which she was eating very
deliberately, as if she were trying to make it last as long as
possible. There was still the leg of the partridge left, and two or
three other very delicate tit-bits, besides two large slices of cold
roast-beef. Glumdalkin had hardly swallowed the last morsel of the
wing, and was just thinking about the leg, when, to her unspeakable
surprise, the house-door opened, and out came the princess, attended
by one of the maids of honor, and followed by Grandmagnificolowsky.
The ladies were muffled up in their fur cloaks, and the maid of honor
seemed to be carrying a basket. Poor famished Glumdalkin! so great was
her astonishment, that she positively paused, with her claw suspended
over the leg of the partridge, to see what her royal highness could
possibly be about.

The princess no sooner came up to the place where the cats were
dining, than, stopping, she commanded the page to carry Glumdalkin
back to the house. 'That cat will eat herself into an apoplexy,' she
said; 'I never saw such a greedy creature!'

The astonishment, the indignation of Glumdalkin, what words can
describe? It _has_ been said, that she positively set up her back and
hissed at the princess; but I can hardly believe _that_. However,
whether she did or not, it made no difference. Grandmagnificolowsky
picked her up, and carried her into the house