And again she opened wide her blue stars.

'Not I,' said Curdie, also bewildered, but very glad.

'He used to be constantly saying--he was not so ill then as he is
now--that he wished he had you about him.'

'And I never to know it!' said Curdie, with displeasure.

'The master of the horse told papa's own secretary that he had written
to the miner-general to find you and send you up; but the miner-general
wrote back to the master of the horse, and he told the secretary, and
the secretary told my father, that they had searched every mine in the
kingdom and could hear nothing of you. My father gave a great sigh, and
said he feared the goblins had got you, after all, and your father and
mother were dead of grief. And he has never mentioned you since,
except when wandering. I cried very much. But one of my grandmother's
pigeons with its white wing flashed a message to me through the window
one day, and then I knew that my Curdie wasn't eaten by the goblins,
for my grandmother wouldn't have taken care of him one time to let him
be eaten the next. Where were you, Curdie, that they couldn't find
you?'

'We will talk about that another time, when we are not expecting the
doctor,' said Curdie.

As he spoke, his eyes fell upon something shining on the table under
the lamp. His heart gave a great throb, and he went nearer. Yes, there
could be no doubt--it was the same flagon that the butler had filled in
the wine cellar.

'It looks worse and worse!'he said to himself, and went back to Irene,
where she stood half dreaming.

'When will the doctor be here?' he asked once more--this time hurriedly.

The question was answered--not by the princess, but by something which
that instant tumbled heavily into the room. Curdie flew toward it in
vague terror about Lina.

On the floor lay a little round man, puffing and blowing, and uttering
incoherent language. Curdie thought of his mattock, and ran and laid
it aside.

'Oh, dear Dr Kelman!' cried the princess, running up and taking hold of
his arm; 'I am so sorry!' She pulled and pulled, but might almost as
well have tried to set up a cannon ball. 'I hope you have not hurt
yourself?'

'Not at all, not at all,' said the doctor, trying to smile and to rise
both at once, but finding it impossible to do either.

'If he slept on the floor he would be late for breakfast,' said Curdie
to himself, and held out his hand to help him.

But when he took hold of it, Curdie ve