Depend upon it you
will have to be sorry for behaving so to her, Curdie. You ought at
least to have held your tongue.'
'I am sorry now,' answered Curdie.
'You ought to go and tell her so, then.'
'I don't see how I could manage that. They wouldn't let a miner
boy like me have a word with her alone; and I couldn't tell her
before that nurse of hers. She'd be asking ever so many questions,
and I don't know how many the little princess would like me to
answer. She told me that Lootie didn't know anything about her
coming to get me out of the mountain. I am certain she would have
prevented her somehow if she had known it. But I may have a chance
before long, and meantime I must try to do something for her. I
think, father, I have got on the track at last.'
'Have you, indeed, my boy?' said Peter. 'I am sure you deserve
some success; you have worked very hard for it. What have you
found out?'
'It's difficult, you know, father, inside the mountain, especially
in the dark, and not knowing what turns you have taken, to tell the
lie of things outside.'
'Impossible, my boy, without a chart, or at least a compass,'
returned his father.
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