The old man looked at her curiously.
‘Oh! you’re her,’ he said.
‘I rather think I am. But how am I to get away?’ she answered.
‘If you’ll come with me I’ll take you to my cottage over there, and they’ll never think of looking for you there.’
But the Princess did not exactly like the idea.
‘Aren’t you one of these people?’ she asked; ‘because I don’t relish being fried in lard, or oil, or anything else.’
But the old man shook his head.
‘Good gracious me, no!’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t let them roast the last stranger that came to the town, and so they turned me out.’
‘Oh,’ said the Princess, ‘then you must be King Abominable.’
‘I am Abbonamento.’