"Must you really go?" said that lady with the smile of a maniac.
"I'm afraid so," and he moved towards the door.
"Well," said she, "give my love to your mother and your Aunt Jane."
"I will," was his reply, "and," with firm politeness, "thank you for a very pleasant evening."
"Don't mention it, Mr. O'Grady. Good-bye."
Mrs. O'Reilly closed the door and walked back towards the table smiling madly. She sank into a chair. Her eye fell on the butter-knife—
"I haven't had a bit to eat this day," said she in a loud and threatening voice, and once again she pulled the loaf towards her.
II
His mother finished reading the story of the Beautiful Princess, and it was surely the saddest story he had ever heard. He could not bear to think of that lovely and delicate lady all alone in the great, black forest waiting until the giant came back from killing her seven brothers. He would return with their seven heads swinging pitifully from his girdle, and, when he reached the castle gates, he would gnash his teeth through the keyhole with a noise like the grinding together of great rocks, and would poke his head through the fanlight of the door, and say, fee-faw-fum in a voice of such exceeding loudness that the castle would be shaken to its foundation.
Thinking of this made his throat grow painful with emotion, and then his heart swelled to the most uncomfortable dimensions, and he resolved to devote his whole life to the rescue of the Princess, and, if necessary, die in her defence.