With a heart full of delight, Curdie sat down at a corner of the hearth, on a stool opposite his mother’s chair, and gazed at the princess, who slept as peacefully as if she had been in her own bed. All at once she opened her eyes and fixed them on him.
“Oh, Curdie! you’re come!” she said quietly. “I thought you would!”
Curdie rose and stood before her with downcast eyes.
“Irene,” he said, “I am very sorry I did not believe you.”
“Oh, never mind, Curdie!” answered the princess. “You couldn’t, you know. You do believe me now, don’t you?”
“I can’t help it now. I ought to have helped it before.”
“Why can’t you help it now?”
“Because, just as I was going into the mountain to look for you, I got hold of your thread, and it brought me here.”
“Then you’ve come from my house, have you?”
“Yes, I have.”
“I didn’t know you were there.”
“I’ve been there two or three days, I believe.”
“And I never knew it! Then perhaps you can tell me why my grandmother has brought me here? I can’t think. Something woke me—I didn’t know what, but I was frightened, and I felt for the thread, and there it was! I was more frightened still when it brought me out on the mountain, for I thought it was going to take me into it again, and I like the outside of it best. I supposed you were in trouble again, and I had to get you out. But it brought me here instead; and, oh, Curdie! your mother has been so kind to me—just like my own grandmother!”