"Then you shouldn't have promised."
"Lootie, I promised him a kiss."
"Your royal Highness," said Lootie, suddenly growing very respectful,
"must come in directly."
"Nurse, a princess must _not_ break her word," said Irene, drawing
herself up and standing stockstill.
Lootie did not know which the king might count the worst--to let the
princess be out after sunset, or to let her kiss a miner-boy. She did
not know that, being a gentleman, as many kings have been, he would
have
counted neither of them the worse. However much he might have
disliked
his daughter to kiss the miner-boy, he would not have had her break
her
word for all the goblins in creation. But, as I say, the nurse was not
lady enough to understand this, and so she was in a great difficulty,
for, if she insisted, some one might hear the princess cry and run to
see, and then all would come out. But here Curdie came again to the
rescue.
Madhuri Noah
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