"I have come back," said the Princess, for she could not think of anything wiser to say. The tall man glanced round at her, and then went on digging.
"_That_ doesn't make any difference to anybody," he said.
"Why," she exclaimed, "do you know who I am?"
"Not in the least," said the tall man. "Who are you?"
She drew a long breath of astonishment. "I am the Princess," she said.
The man stopped digging, and looked at her for a moment.
"Of course there's a name!" said the Princess, almost crying. "My real name is Gyldea, but Princess is enough for most people. Is it possible that you did not know who I was? Can't you see I am standing in my own garden?"
"Oh yes," said the tall man. "But you might have been the gardener's daughter, or one of the ladies-in-waiting, mightn't you?" And he returned to his digging.
"Did you get my message?" asked the Princess, fighting to keep back her angry tears.
"Let me see, there was a message of some sort," answered the tall man. "You sent for me, didn't you?"
"Yes," said the Princess, haughtily, "and you said I was to come and see you instead. It is positively shameful!"
"But you needn't have come, need you?" said the tall man.
Then the Princess stamped her tiny foot, and went away again up the garden path. And as she went she thought unconsciously of her yesterday's lover, the first one who had ever interested her at all; and she almost wished she had not sent him away, just because he did not dance well. It struck her now, for the first time, that perhaps there was something else he could do, such as digging potatoes, for instance.
"No, not digging potatoes!" she corrected herself, angrily, "that is a horrid, vulgar occupation. But something else, perhaps; for I dare say there are some people who do things that I have never heard of. I wonder what it feels like to do things of that description? Oh dear! I wish King Marigold would come back again!"
Her yesterday's lover had been a young King with a serious face, and the Princess could never bear people who looked serious; for, clearly, no one had any right to do that, unless he happened to be a beggar or a Prime Minister. All the same, she had wanted him back again ever since the tall man had been rude to her.