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176 - THE PRINCESS AND CURDIE.
strange thing here, and they don't know it when they see it Show it them, and they all stare as it* it were a wicked lie, and that with the lie yet warm that has just left their own mouths !—You are a stranger," she said, and burst out weeping afresh, " but the stranger you are to such a place and such people the better !"
" I am the person," said Curdie, "whom you saw carrying the things from the supper-table." He showed her the loaf. " If you can trust, as well as speak the truth, I will trust you.—Can you trust me ? *
She looked at him steadily for a moment
" I can," she answered.
"One thing more," said Curdie : "haveyou courage as well as faith ? "
" I think so."
" Look my dog in the face and don't cry out.—Come here, Lina."
Lina obeyed. The girl looked at her, and laid her hand on her head.
"Now I know you are a true woman," said Curdie. "—I am come to set things right in this house. Not one of the servants knows I am here. Will you tell them to-morrow morning, that, if they do not alter their ways, and give over drinking, and lying, and stealing, and un-kindness, they shall every one of them be driven from the palace ? * |
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