IRENE BEHAVES LIKE A PRINCESS
WHEN the princess awoke from the sweetest of sleeps, she found her nurse
bending above her, the housekeeper looking over the nurse's shoulder,
and the laundry-maid looking over the housekeeper's. The room was full
of women-servants; and the gentlemen-at-arms, with a long column of
men-servants behind them, were peeping, or trying to peep in at the door
of the nursery.
"Are those horrid creatures gone?" asked the princess, remembering first
what had terrified her in the morning.
"You naughty little princess!" cried Lootie.
Her face was very pale, with red streaks in it, and she looked as if she
were going to shake her; but Irene said nothing--only waited to hear
what should come next.
"How _could_ you get under the clothes like that, and make us all fancy
you were lost! And keep it up all day too! You _are_ the most obstinate
child! It's anything but fun to us, I can tell you!"
It was the only way the nurse could account for her disappearance.
"I didn't do that, Lootie," said Irene, very quietly.
"Don't tell stories!" cried her nurse quite rudely.
"I shall tell you nothing at all," said Irene.
"That's just as bad," said the nurse.
"Just as bad to say nothing at all as to tell stories!" exclaimed the
princess. "I will ask my papa about that. He won't say so. And I don't
think he will like you to say so."
"Tell me directly what you mean by it!" screamed the nurse, half wild
with anger at the princess, and fright at the possible consequences to
herself.
"When I tell you the truth, Lootie," said the princess, who somehow did
not feel at all angry, "you say to me _Don't tell stories_: it would
appear that I must tell stories before you will believe me."
"You are very rude, my dear princess," said the nurse.
"You are so rude, Lootie, that I will not speak to you again till you
are sorry. Why should I, when I know you will not believe me?" returned
the princess.
For she did know perfectly well that if she were to tell Lootie what she
had been about, the more she went on to tell her, the less would she
believe her.
"You are the most provoking child!" cried her nurse. "You deserve to be
well punished for your wicked behavior."
"Please, Mrs. Housekeeper," said the princess, "will you take me to your
room and keep me till my king-papa comes? I will ask him to come as soon
as he can."
Every one stared at these words. Up to this moment, they had all
regarded her as little more than a baby.
But the housekeeper was afraid of the nurse, and sought to patch matters
up, saying--
"I am sure, princess, nursey did not mean to be rude to you."
"I do not think my papa would wish me to have a nurse who spoke to me as
Lootie does. If she thinks I tell lies, she had better either say so to
my papa, or go away. Sir Walter, will you take charge of me?"
"With the greatest of pleasure, princess," answered the captain of the
gentlemen-at-arms, walking with his great stride into the room. The
crowd of servants made eager way for him, and he bowed low before the
little princess's bed. "I shall send my servant at once, on the fastest
horse in the stable, to tell your king-papa that your royal Highness
desires his presence. When you have chosen one of these under-servants
to wait upon you, I shall order the room to be cleared."
"Thank you very much, Sir Walter," said the princess, and her eye
glanced toward a rosy-cheeked girl who had lately come to the house as a
scullery-maid.
But when Lootie saw the eyes of her dear princess going in search of
another instead of her, she fell upon her knees by the bedside, and
burst into a great cry of distress.
"I think, Sir Walter," said the princess, "I will keep Lootie. But I put
myself under your care; and you need not trouble my king-papa until I
speak to you again. Will you all please to go away? I am quite safe and
well, and I did not hide myself for the sake either of amusing myself,
or of troubling my people. Lootie, will you please to dress me?"