The Princess dropped the curtain and came after them, closing the
door behind her.
"Look out!" she said; "look out!" there are two steps down.
"Thank you," said Gerald, rubbing his knee at the bottom of the
steps. "We found that out for ourselves." "I'm sorry," said the
Princess, "but you can't have hurt yourselves much. Go straight on.
There aren't any more steps."
They went straight on in the dark.
"When you come to the door just turn the handle and go in. Then
stand still till I find the matches. I know where they are."
"Did they have matches a hundred years ago?" asked Jimmy.
"I meant the tinder-box," said the Princess quickly. "We always
called it the matches. Don't you? Here, let me go first."
She did, and when they had reached the door she was waiting for
them with a candle in her hand. She thrust it on Gerald.
"Hold it steady," she said, and undid the shutters of a long window,
so that first a yellow streak and then a blazing great oblong of light
flashed at them and the room was full of sunshine.
"It makes the candle look quite silly," said Jimmy. "So it does, said
the Princess, and blew out the candle. Then she took the key from
the outside of the door, put it in the inside keyhole, and turned it.
The room they were in was small and high. Its domed ceiling was
of deep blue with gold stars painted on it.
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