come never do come
out of it, always looks back with horror, not on what she has come
through, but on the very idea of the possibility of having failed, and
being still the same miserable creature as before."

"You will tell me what it is before it begins?" said the princess.

"I will not tell you exactly. But I will tell you some things to help
you. One great danger is that perhaps you will think you are in it
before it has really begun, and say to yourself, 'Oh! this is really
nothing to me. It may be a trial to some, but for me I am sure it is
not worth mentioning.' And then, before you know, it will be upon you,
and you will fail utterly and shamefully."

"I will be very, very careful," said the princess. "Only don't let me
be frightened."

"You shall not be frightened, except it be your own doing. You are
already a brave girl, and there is no occasion to try you more that
way. I saw how you rushed into the middle of the ugly creatures; and as
they ran from you, so will all kinds of evil things, as long as you
keep them outside of you, and do not open the cottage of your heart to
let them in. I will tell you something more about what you will have to
go through.

"Nobody can be a real princess--do not imagine you have yet been any
thing more than a mock one--until she is a princess over herself, that
is, until, when she finds herself unwilling to do the thing that is
right, she makes herself do it. So long as any mood she is in makes her
do the thing she will be sorry for when that mood is over, she is a
slave, and no princess. A princess is able to do what is right even
should she unhappily be in a mood that would make another unable to do
it. For instance, if you should be cross and angry, you are not a whit
the less bound to be just, yes, kind even--a thing most difficult in
such a mood--though ease itself in a good mood, loving and sweet.
Whoever does what she is bound to do, be she the dirtiest little girl
in the street, is a princess, worshipful, honorable. Nay, more; her
might goes farther than she could send it, for if she act so, the evil
mood will wither and die, and leave her loving and clean.--Do you
understand me, dear Rosamond?"

As she spoke, the wise woman laid her hand on her head and looked--oh,
so lovingly!--into her eyes.

"I am not sure," said the princess, humbly.

"Perhaps you will understand me better if I say it just comes to this,
that you must NOT DO what is wrong, however much y