She at once ordered the door of the coach to be opened and that Gabriel should enter.
"Your highness!" exclaimed Lady Gertrude, nearly fainting.
"You may leave us if you please," said the princess, with a little smile; but Lady Gertrude held her smelling-salts to her nose and remained in the coach, which the princess ordered to be driven through a secluded wood-road.
Gabriel, sitting beside her on the fine satin cushion, told his story, from the moment when he found the dingy, brown dog in the hands of the teasing boys, to the moment when the organ-grinder bore him away.
The hands of the princess were clasped tightly as she listened. "You called him Topaz," she said, when the boy had finished. "I called him Goldilocks. Ah, if it should be the same! If it should!"
"Surely there are not two dogs in the world so beautiful," said Gabriel.
"That is what I say to myself," responded the princess.
"Had he been less wonderful, your highness, he would be safe now, for I should have kept him. He loved me," said Gabriel simply.
"You are an honest boy," replied the princess gratefully, "and I will make you glad of it whether Topaz turns out to be Goldilocks or not. But you say he danced with so much grace?"
"Yes, your highness, and tossed his head for glee till his curls waved merrily."