The Princess and the Goblin | Page 5

care to open any, but ran on to the
end, where she turned into another passage, also full of doors. When
she had turned twice more, and still saw doors and only doors about her,
she began to get frightened. It was so silent! And all those doors must
hide rooms with nobody in them! That was dreadful. Also the rain
made a great trampling noise on the roof. She turned and started at full
speed, her little footsteps echoing through the sounds of the rain - back
for the stairs and her safe nursery. So she thought, but she had lost
herself long ago. It doesn't follow that she was lost, because she had
lost herself, though.
She ran for some distance, turned several times, and then began to be
afraid. Very soon she was sure that she had lost the way back. Rooms
everywhere, and no stair! Her little heart beat as fast as her little feet
ran, and a lump of tears was growing in her throat. But she was too
eager and perhaps too frightened to cry for some time. At last her hope
failed her. Nothing but passages and doors everywhere! She threw
herself on the floor, and burst into a wailing cry broken by sobs.
She did not cry long, however, for she was as brave as could be
expected of a princess of her age. After a good cry, she got up, and
brushed the dust from her frock. Oh, what old dust it was! Then she
wiped her eyes with her hands, for princesses don't always have their
handkerchiefs in their pockets, any more than some other little girls I
know of. Next, like a true princess, she resolved on going wisely to
work to find her way back: she would walk through the passages, and
look in every direction for the stair. This she did, but without success.
She went over the same ground again an again without knowing it, for
the passages and doors were all alike. At last, in a corner, through a
half-open door, she did see a stair. But alas! it went the wrong way:
instead of going down, it went up. Frightened as she was, however, she
could not help wishing to see where yet further the stair could lead. It
was very narrow, and so steep that she went on like a four-legged
creature on her hands and feet.
CHAPTER 3

The Princess and - We Shall See Who
When she came to the top, she found herself in a little square place,
with three doors, two opposite each other, and one opposite the top of
the stair. She stood for a moment, without an idea in her little head
what to do next. But as she stood, she began to hear a curious humming
sound. Could it be the rain? No. It was much more gentle, and even
monotonous than the sound of the rain, which now she scarcely heard.
The low sweet humming sound went on, sometimes stopping for a little
while and then beginning again. It was more like the hum of a very
happy bee that had found a rich well of honey in some globular flower,
than anything else I can think of at this moment. Where could it come
from? She laid her ear first to one of the doors to hearken if it was there
- then to another. When she laid her ear against the third door, there
could be no doubt where it came from: it must be from something in
that room. What could it be? She was rather afraid, but her curiosity
was stronger than her fear, and she opened the door very gently and
peeped in. What do you think she saw? A very old lady who sat
spinning.
Perhaps you will wonder how the princess could tell that the old lady
was an old lady, when I inform you that not only was she beautiful, but
her skin was smooth and white. I will tell you more. Her hair was
combed back from her forehead and face, and hung loose far down and
all over her back. That is not much like an old lady - is it? Ah! but it
was white almost as snow. And although her face was so smooth, her
eyes looked so wise that you could not have helped seeing she must be
old. The princess, though she could not have told you why, did think
her very old indeed - quite fifty, she said to herself. But she was rather
older than that, as you shall hear.
While the princess stared bewildered, with her head just inside the door,
the old lady lifted hers, and said, in a sweet, but old and rather shaky
voice, which mingled