"I comb my locks, I comb my locks!
Alas! that only here
I dare to lay my hood aside
And brush them without fear."
Having brushed her hair until it shone, Goldenhair bound it up again, and covered its brightness with her hood. She took up her candle and was about to leave the scullery when she heard a sound as of some one sighing sadly.
She listened, but all was still. "'Twas only the wind that sighed beneath the door," she said to herself, and again she was about to go when she heard the sighing once more, and this time she knew that it was not the wind. The sound came from the outer door of the scullery, the one that opened into the forest.
Goldenhair was frightened, but yet she could not think of any one being in distress without longing to help them. She crept over to the door and laid her ear against it. "Who is there?" she asked.
There was no answer, but she heard some one grieving softly on the other side of the door. Then all was still.
"Who is there?" repeated Goldenhair. "If it is some one in trouble, speak."
There was no answer, but a sigh so sad that it went to the heart. She hesitated no longer, but opened the door.
The draught of wind almost blew out her candle, but she put her hand around it to shelter it, and by its light she saw leaning against the doorway the same fairy she had seen in the forest.
The princess looked and wondered. "Why are you here?" she asked. "Did you come to look for me?"
"Alas," sighed the fairy, "I would that I had never seen you."