‘I think I’ll stop where I am,’ he said, when they offered him a wooden stool to sit on, ‘for you see I’m not used to chairs.’ So they let him stop where he was.
One by one the Lords of the Council began to arrive; they looked curiously at the ambassadors but said nothing. When they were all arrived the Princess said to the dwarf:
‘Now if you will state your message we will listen.’
So the dwarf snarled in a bad-tempered voice:
‘I shan’t tell you—you aren’t the commander-in-chief of the army, are you?’
‘No, but I am the Queen of the Western World.’
‘Oh! you’re the Queen of the Western World, are you? Well, you won’t be Queen of the Western World long, if you don’t mind your P’s and Q’s. The king Merrymineral sent me to say that if you don’t marry him and make him king, he’ll kill the lot of you and make himself king in spite of you—so there; and I’m to wait for an answer.’
After consulting the Council for a moment the Princess said:
‘Of course I shan’t marry him—how could he be so ridiculous as to think so?’