So the Princess took her hat off, not wishing to be invisible any more, for a time at least, and then, opening the door, she walked quietly downstairs.
There seemed to be no one about, and except that a terrible hurly-burly proceeded from the whereabouts of the kitchen, one would never have told that any one in the whole house was awake.
However, just then the clock in the hall struck eight, and a page came rushing downstairs.
‘Breakfast! breakfast!’ he shouted, quite without noticing the Princess, and he almost passed her before he saw her; but she stopped him.
‘Where is the King?’ she said.
‘The King is in his counting—that is, I mean the breakfast-room. But you can’t see him.’
‘But I must,’ said the Princess.
‘Well, of course, if you must——’
The Princess interrupted him.
‘Don’t you know who I am?’ she said.