“I see a big, bare, garret-room—like the one in mother’s cottage, only big enough to take the cottage itself in, and leave a good margin all round,” answered Curdie.
“And what more do you see?”
“I see a tub, and a heap of musty straw, and a withered apple, and a ray of sunlight coming through a hole in the middle of the roof and shining on your head, and making all the place look a curious dusky brown. I think you had better drop it, princess, and go down to the nursery, like a good girl.”
“But don’t you hear my grandmother talking to me?” asked Irene, almost crying.
“No. I hear the cooing of a lot of pigeons. If you won’t come down, I will go without you. I think that will be better anyhow, for I’m sure nobody who met us would believe a word we said to them. They would think we made it all up. I don’t expect anybody but my own father and mother to believe me. They know I wouldn’t tell a story.”
“And yet you won’t believe me , Curdie?” expostulated the princess, now fairly crying with vexation and sorrow at the gulf between her and Curdie.
“No. I can’t , and I can’t help it,” said Curdie, turning to leave the room.
“What shall I do, grandmother?” sobbed the princess, turning her face round upon the lady’s bosom, and shaking with suppressed sobs.
“You must give him time,” said her grandmother; “and you must be content not to be believed for a while. It is very hard to bear; but I have had to bear it, and shall have to bear it many a time yet. I will take care of what Curdie thinks of you in the end. You must let him go now.”