"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. The walls were of wood, panelled and carved, and there was no furniture in it whatever.
"This," said the Princess, "is my treasure chamber." "But where, asked Kathleen politely, "are the treasures?"
"Don't you see them?" asked the Princess.
"No, we don't," said Jimmy bluntly. "You don't come that bread-and-cheese game with me not twice over, you don't!"
"If you really don't see them," said the Princess, "I suppose I shall have to say the charm. Shut your eyes, please. And give me your word of honour you won't look till I tell you, and that you'll never tell anyone what you've seen."
Their words of honour were something that the children would rather not have given just then, but they gave them all the same, and shut their eyes tight.